Nessrine Ariffin ’15 Is Best Fast In her debut, squash player Nessrine Ariffin ’15 confirmed she could be Bates’ best female player yet. In her first college match in November, she beat Trinity’s top player, Catalina Pelaez, ranked 187th in the world. From Penang, Malaysia, Ariffin finished the year 23–4, earned Second Team All-America honors and joined
Swimmer Gabrielle Sergi ’I4 has an edge: Her family owns a pool company.
Aisha Shah ’02 and Ricky Weisskopf ’08 as Bates squash All-Americans. Next fall, Ahmed Abdel Khalek ’16 — an Egyptian by way of Westminster School in Connecticut, the two-time defending U.S. junior champion and the sixth-ranked junior in the world — will join the men’s team. Squash is perhaps the most internationally diverse of all collegiate sports, and head coach Pat Cosquer ’98 keeps his team doubly diverse by recruiting students from the StreetSquash and SquashBuster programs in New York City and Boston, respectively. “They all want to be Bates students,” he says. “They don’t want to go where they’re known primarily as squash players.”
Mekae Hyde ’15
Alex Parker ’15
Lewiston Twosome At least in recent memory, first-year teammates Mekae Hyde and Alex Parker are the first Lewiston residents to play baseball at Bates. Baseball insiders like assistant coach Bob Flynn and equipment manager Jim Taylor can recall no others, and the college’s alumni database turns up nada. While they’re rare specimens, Hyde says the decision to attend Bates was, in the end, a “no-doubter”— the baseball term for a blast that leaves the park, no doubt about it. A catcher, Hyde did initially balked at attending Bates. “I really wanted to get away” and play Division I ball somewhere. But after a visit, he “just fell in love with Bates.” Parker, too, was on the “anywhere but Maine” trajectory. But like Hyde, a campus visit sold him. Hyde played for Lewiston High School, a Class A program, while Parker attended smaller St. Dominic High School in Auburn, a Class C power. Both locals came to Bates for the “right reasons,” says head coach Mike Leonard: a potent blend of academics and athletics. “They both work extremely hard. And they both want to help the team,” Leonard says.
Stephen Mally/NCAA Photos
Campus Pride says Bates athletics is a U.S. model for inclusion and friendliness to LGBT students.
“ It’s every little kid’s dream to play Division I, but you have to look at what’s better for you in the long term. Education is going to trump athletics every day.” — Mekae Hyde ’15
Spring 2012
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