Local college notes

Tracking the Bears

• Coast Guard Academy will honor wrestling coach Steve Eldridge, who's in his 46th season, on Friday night before the team's home finale against Western New England and Johnson & Wales. The ceremony begins at 5 p.m. Eldridge is the longest tenured faculty member at Coast Guard. He has guided the Bears to five New England championships and coached eight All-Americans.

• The men's basketball team has to win its final three regular season games and get help to qualify for the New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference tournament. Only the top five of seven teams qualify. Greg Marshall is the team's leading scorer, averaging 15.2 points for the Bears who host Clark Wednesday (7:30 p.m.).

• The women's basketball team is looking to break a nine-game losing streak when the Bears host Springfield Wednesday (5:30 p.m.). Sophomore Kaitlin Ward averages a team-best 12.1 points per game.

• At its annual banquet last week, the football team announced that linebacker Curt Barrett and tight end Casey Paris will serve as captains for the 2012 season. The Bears went 2-7 last season, losing five games by seven points or less, four in the final minute. They host rival Merchant Marine in the season opener on Sept. 8.

Camel notes

• The Connecticut College men's basketball team hosts Mitchell College today at 7 p.m. in a non-conference game. The Camels are 6-15 overall, 0-8 in the conference. Matt Vadas scored 30 points or more for the fourth time in his career when he had 36 against Western Connecticut last week. He is averaging 16.5 points per game.

• On the ice, the women's hockey team has played four straight games against top 10 teams, losing all four. The Camels (8-9-2, 5-8-1) will make their fifth straight appearance in the New England Small College Athletic Conference tournament, starting Feb. 25. Sophomore Courtney Dumont leads the team with seven goals and nine assists.

• In Saturday's home game against Tufts, the men's hockey team helped raise awareness about the Green Dot program, a campus initiative to prevent power-based personal violence through bystander intervention. About 450 fans attended the game.

"Preventing sexual assault and other violence is an important issue on our campus and at colleges across the country," said senior co-captain Sean Curran in a release. "The team thought it would be a good idea to take a stand and show our support for this program."

The Camels (5-12-3, 3-9-2) are still in the running for a conference tournament berth. They're tied for the eighth and final spot with Hamilton. The teams play Friday at Hamilton.

• The swimming teams are preparing for championship meets. The 19th-ranked women compete in the NESCAC championship Feb. 16-19 at Wesleyan University and the No. 22 men swim in the conference meet on Feb. 23-26 at Williams College.

Last year the women finished fourth and men fifth.

• The women's basketball team already has clinched its first NESCAC tournament berth. The Camels (16-4, 5-3), who are fighting to host a quarterfinal game, sit in a five-way tied for third place entering the final weekend of the regular season. Senior Jenn Shinall recently moved into seventh place on the school's all-time scoring list with 1,191 points. Tara Gabelman leads the conference in rebounding at 10.1 per game and ranks second in scoring at 15.2 points.

Around the region

• Mount Holyoke College senior captain Lydia Bowers, a Norwich Free Academy graduate, earned NEWMAC swimmer of the week honors. She won three individual freestyle events - 50 (25.88 seconds), 100 (55.64), 200 (2:00.69) - and also swam a leg on the winning 400 freestyle relay in Mount Holyoke's 163-135 win over Smith College Saturday.

Over her successful career, Bowers has contributed to 79 wins and competed on school record-setting relay teams in the 200 medley (1:55.59), 400 medley (4:07.12), 200 medley freestyle (1:40.71), 400 freestyle (3:41.42) and 800 freestyle (8:09.36). She also has received Seven Sisters All-Championship honors in five events and earned NEWMAC Academic All-Conference team honors last year.

• Stonington High School graduate Kevin Donahue, a senior guard on the Assumption College basketball team, was recently named to the CoSIDA District I Academic All-District First Team. He's one of three players from the Northeast-10 Conference to earn the honor.

Donahue is the leading scorer for Assumption, averaging 17.0 points per game. He ranks fourth in the conference in scoring. A double major in history and education, he has a 3.42 grade point average. He received the Assumption Student-Athlete Director's Citation last fall for a GPA over 3.5 and also made the school honor roll six straight semesters.

• Eastern Connecticut State University's Fredrick Hewett, a sophomore from New London, scored 16 of his track team's 19 points at the Springfield Invitational on Saturday. He placed second in the 60 and 200 meter races. He qualified for the New England Division III championships in the 60 with a time of 7.14 seconds. He finished in 23.34 in the 200. Stephen Spranzo, a junior from Colchester, also scored for Eastern, placing seventh out of 15 runners in the 1,000 meters.

• Montville's Nikkia Smith and North Stonington's Keyokah Mars-Garrick contributed to the Hartford women's basketball team's 63-52 win at Vermont on Sunday. Smith, a junior forward, had a team-high tying 18 points, making 5-of-9 field goals and 8-of-11 free throws. Mars-Garrick, a senior reserve, had two rebounds, one assist, one steal and one block in 15 minutes for the Hawks who've won four in a row to improve to 15-10 overall, 6-5 in the America East.

- Gavin Keefe