By Anthony Gulizia, News Staff
When Jamie Oleksiak stepped onto the ice at Matthew’s Arena, he towers over the majority of his teammates and opponents.
But the sophomore defenseman may be take his looming 6-foot-7-inch frame elsewhere after the NHL Entry Draft tomorrow at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minn.
Rumors of hockey coach Greg Cronin leaving the Huskies surfaced in April, but the gossip was confirmed when Northeastern Athletics announced Monday that Cronin will take an assistant coaching job with the National Hockey League’s Toronto Maple Leafs.
Assistant coach Sebastien Laplante will serve as the interim head coach until a replacement is found.
After an accomplished rookie season including six individual victories, freshman Eric Jenkins finished 11th in his heat and 19th overall in the 1,500-meter run at the NCAA semifinals June 9.
Jenkins ran the event in 3:51.21, his sixth-best time this season. He entered the event ranked second-to-last and ended up beating five other runners. He was the only freshman in the country to make it to the semi-finals in the NCAA 1,500 meter run. The winner of the race was senior Dorian Ulrey from the University of Arkansas, who ran the race in 3:42.44.
Unless you spend a great deal of your time under a rock, you know by now that our former men’s hockey head coach Greg Cronin took a job as an assistant coach for the Toronto Maple Leafs. Behind him, he leaves a Huskies team that improved vastly under his tenure, garnering one of the best recruiting profiles in Hockey East (something his departure may put in jeopardy), and many loyal fans saddened by his sudden departure.
Rumors of hockey coach Greg Cronin leaving the Huskies surfaced in April, but today the gossip became the truth as Northeastern Athletics confirmed Cronin will take an assistant coaching job with the National Hockey League’s Toronto Maple Leafs.
"A national search for Cronin’s replacement will begin immediately,” the Athletics Department said in a statement released today. “Assistant coach Sebastien Laplante will serve as the interim head coach and will be a candidate for the full-time position.”
When senior pitcher Andrew Leenhouts came to campus for his official visit nearly four years ago, coach Neil McPhee told him that he had the potential to be drafted a few years down the road.
McPhee’s speculation came to fruition as Leenhouts, along with pitchers Les Williams and Brandon McNelis, was selected in the MLB Entry Draft. Williams and McNelis finished their last year of NCAA eligibility this past season.
Freshman outfielder Aaron Barbosa earned the respect of his teammates the old-fashioned way. He didn’t intimidate fellow players or opponents with his pedestrian five-foot, 10-inch frame. He didn’t waltz into the locker room on the first day of his rookie season and command respect.
The 19-year-old outfielder and second baseman from Dracut simply played lights-out the entire year, and now has a Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) rookie of the year award to show for it.
Of the five athletes who competed in the first round of NCAA championships, only one – freshman Eric Jenkins – advanced to the semi-finals.
Jenkins will compete to be the second-ever Northeastern national track champion by running in the 1,500-meter race at Drake Stadium in Des Moines, Iowa tonight. The last champion was Boris Djerassi, who won the hammer throw in 1975.
Every Boston fan knows what disappointment feels like. From the Red Sox to the Patriots and this year, the Celtics, all experienced that pang of heartache when hope is lost.
The Bruins are fighting for the Stanley Cup, but they’re caught in a 39-year title drought, and last year’s 3-0 slip to Philadelphia was, well, a let down.
In the rafters at Matthews Arena hangs only one retired number – 35. Reggie Lewis, the kid from Baltimore who carried Northeastern to four NCAA tournament appearances and endeared himself to the city of Boston with his infectious enthusiasm as a member of the Celtics.
For some reason or another, retiring other numbers has been sacrilegious to Northeastern’s athletic department. We have no retired numbers for hockey and only one for baseball. As Northeastern fans, we may not hold our few athletic accomplishments in high regard, but we should embrace our history and share it with a new generation.
The story of the Northeastern baseball team can’t be told without one word – potential. After all, “potential” was the unofficial theme of the team that finished 18-33, clearly the most collectively uttered word by all of the players on the squad.
The first freshmen boat had a strong finish at the Eastern Sprints, the annual championship for the Eastern Association of Rowing Colleges, while the varsity boat struggled and did not advance in the competition.
The first freshmen boat took first in the third heat, beating Boston University, Columbia, Syracuse, Holy Cross and Georgetown with a time of 6:09.7.
Rumors of hockey coach Greg Cronin leaving the Huskies surfaced in April, but the gossip was confirmed when Northeastern Athletics announced Monday that Cronin will take an assistant coaching job with the National Hockey League’s Toronto Maple Leafs.
Assistant coach Sebastien Laplante will serve as the interim head coach until a replacement is found. 
