Spartans Now and Forever

The spring of 2020 will always be, “the season that could have been.”

The season that could have had fans filling the bleachers and lining the fences and hillsides surrounding our facilities. The season that could have seen the Spartans climb the ranks of the Little East Conference. The season in which long-standing individual or program records were surpassed.

Perhaps the Castleton men’s lacrosse and softball teams would have made their first-ever appearances in the Little East Conference Tournaments. Both programs were, after all, just a few close games from accomplishing the feat in their inaugural seasons in the league in 2019. Perhaps the Spartan baseball team would have made a run deep into the LEC Tournament in a league that boasts some of the top programs in the country. Perhaps women’s lacrosse would make their way back to the LEC Tournament for the second year in a row despite losing multiple key players to graduation in 2019. Perhaps the track and field programs would have seen their first individual conference champions, and men’s tennis their first LEC victory.

Men’s Lacrosse Senior Cameron Russell was off to a fast start offensively and was on pace to set a new careerhigh in both goals and points. If he kept pace of his four-game totals from the early portion of the season, he would have finished with his second consecutive 30-goal season for the Spartans. Seniors Jeremy Clements and Nick Aleksonis were also off to impressive starts,

with Clements pulling in 13 ground balls and causing four turnovers in four games, and Aleksonis seeing an increase in action in the midfield after being named a captain prior to the season. Senior goalie Dakota Jones was slotted as the team’s backup, appearing in one contest at Skidmore before the season was cut short.

Softball For the softball team, Sara Baker was off to a strong start at the plate after a year away from the diamond. She barely missed a beat in her time off, hitting .563 with four RBIs through five games in 2020. A difference-maker in the middle of the lineup, Baker was poised to help the program improve upon its final standing in the LEC a season ago. Fellow senior Calli Van Gorden had some early-season struggles, but would likely have turned things around at the plate in time. Van Gorden was a career .361 hitter coming into the season, a signal that her slow start would be short-lived had the season carried on.

Baseball Spartan baseball seniors made an impact all over the diamond this year, helping Castleton to a 7-4 start against strong competition in Florida and Virginia before the season came to a halt. 2019 All-American Davis Mikell was having a solid season once again, hitting .318 with 15 RBIs through 11 games, while John Stewart III was batting .406 and had 12 runs scored. Alex Borsari was having a career year, driving in six runs through 10 games, while Jake Spielberg had three RBIs and two runs in seven outings. On the mound, Cameron Goulet put together seven innings of one-run ball against Cabrini, and was getting settled for another strong season against conference opponents. Goulet was 6-0 all-time in conference action, including a 3-0 mark last year against stiff LEC competition. Garrett Moran picked up a pair of wins early in the season, including a victory over in-state rival NVU-Lyndon on the trip to Florida.

Women’s Lacrosse Seniors Erin Shuttle and Morgan Derosia were off to a blazing start offensively for women’s lacrosse, combining for 40 of the team’s 59 goals through five games. Shuttle racked up 23 goals and six assists for a team-high 29 points, with Derosia scoring 17 times with three assists for 20 points. Shuttle was on pace for a career-best season, and one that threatened some singleseason offensive records for the Spartans. If she kept her 4.6 goals-per-game average over the course of Castleton’s 17- game regular season schedule, Shuttle would have become just the third-player all-time to reach 70 goals in a single season for Castleton. With the season cut short, Derosia missed out on joining the 100-point club, closing the year with 98 career points. Averaging 4.0 points per game through five games, she would likely have achieved the mark in her next contest— one that was scheduled to be under the lights of Dave Wolk Stadium. Senior Megan Krumm also ranked among the team’s leading scorers, notching three goals and seven assists for the third-highest point total on the team behind Shuttle and Derosia. Krumm was also looking at a career-year, as she was on pace for a 30-point season after registering 19 points in 2019. Nicolle Trivino rounded out a strong senior class in the midfield, picking up nine ground balls and causing three turnovers in just three games. Trivino also had a goal for Castleton in what turned out to be the penultimate game of the season, the sixth score of her career.

Track and Field The men’s and women’s track and field programs were unable to make it to the outdoor season, but showed marked improvement throughout the 2019-20 indoor campaign that had hopes set high for the spring. Senior Clayton Bailey was back for his final season as a Spartan after a season-ending injury granted him an extra year of eligibility. He had seven top-five finishes in the javelin in his career, including a thirdplace finish at the North Atlantic Conference Championships as a freshman and a pair of wins—one at Eastern Connecticut State in 2018 and a second at Wesleyan in 2019. On the women’s side, sisters Emily and Lydia Maier were coming off indoor seasons that saw the program reach new heights. Emily set a personal-record time of 10.54 seconds in the 60-meter hurdles this season at Middlebury on her way to a fifth-place finish—one of four top-five finishes in her indoor career. She was also part of the 4x200 relay team that qualified for the NCAA Division III New England Regional Championships in February. Lydia also qualified for the New England Regionals in the 600-meter run, an event that she holds the program record in. Lydia is also part of a pair of outdoor track records, holding the top time in the 800-meter run while being part of the program’s best 4x400-meter relay team.

Men’s Tennis The men’s tennis program had just two matches under its belt when the season was cut short, but had just recently defeated NVU-Johnson 9-0 to earn their first win of the year. Senior Jared Wheeler was 1-1 at the top flight, rolling to victory 6-0, 6-0 against Johnson’s Dylan Griffin. Fellow senior Spencer Butter also earned a win that day—grinding out a three-set victory, 7-6, 5-7, 10-8—to preserve the sweep of the Badgers. Wheeler wrapped up his career with 17 singles victories, while Butter finished his Spartan career with four victories in three seasons.

Though we will never know what might have transpired on the field, the diamond, the track or the court in the spring of 2020, we do know a few things for certain: the moments that those teams gave the Spartan faithful will never be forgotten; the memories created with teammates and coaches will last a lifetime; and, most importantly, we will always be Spartans.