Fri. Mar 29th, 2024

As Deerfield teams are entering the final stretch of the winter season, many recent alumni have been enjoying success in their respective sports at the collegiate level.

For this issue, we asked two of our recent alumni about their success and experiences. Bailey Smith ’18 of Northeastern Women’s Swimming and Diving Team entered her first Colonial Athletic Association Championship, and Meghan Halloran ’17 of the Williams Women’s Hockey Team competed in her first New En- gland Small College Athletic Conference Championship.

During her time at Deerfield, Halloran was a tri-varsity athlete and dual-varsity Captain in the sports of hockey and lacrosse.

She nearly lead Girls Varsity Hockey to a playoff bid and lead Girls Varsity Lacrosse to their best record in the last decade. Halloran also lead the Deerfield Firefighters and proctored Harold Smith 1. Halloran is now a dual sport athlete at Williams in a very competitive NESCAC league.

While at Deerfield, Smith was also a dual-varsity Captain in the sports of swimming and water polo.

Smith holds the Deerfield re- cord both the 500 and 200 Free as well as the 200 Medley relay. In addition to excelling in the pool, Smith graduated Cum Laude and participated in various co-curriculars including proctoring in the

Ninth-Grade Village and writing for The Tavern. Smith now competes at the Division I level in the Colonial Athletic association Conference for Northeastern University where she specializes in backstroke and butterfly.

Halloran may prefer her water frozen, but both athletes share an incredible work ethic that has lead to their incredible success in college.

We wish Halloran and Smith the best of luck as they finish out their championship seasons!

Meghan Halloran ‘17

Williams College – NESCAC Playoffs

Hockey

“Going into the season we knew we had a really strong team just because we had so many returners and so everyone was really excited from the beginning. This year we’ve had a lot more confidence in ourselves and also our team chemistry is strong because of our senior class leaders. This past weekend definitely made us realize how good we really are because we had not beaten Middlebury since 2006 and we finished the regular season number one. Even though we’re the first seed, the NESCAC league is very competitive and any any team can win on any day so we’re not going to take any game lightly, but now we have good momentum and confidence going into playoffs.”

 

Bailey Smith ’18

Northeastern University – CAA Championships

Swimming

“So I’m actually preparing to leave for my CAA championships and I could not be more excited. I’ve had an amazing start to my collegiate athletic career here at NU and I actually can’t believe that first year is almost done. The team finished the season 7-3 and I personally have had a lot of growth in the pool. Every week I feel like I improve a different part of my stroke or race plan, and this has really changed my races for the better. My two coaches here are both amazing at what they do and push me to swim faster and believe that I can achieve my goals. CAAs will be one of the fastest and most competitive meets I’ve had the chance to swim at, and I can not wait to race and swim for my team!”