Freshman sprinter Noah Cumby is making waves in the pool down in Texas, one of a handful Newfoundland and Labrador athletes in the midst of their 2018-19 NCAA Division I college sports seasons.
Joining St. John’s native Cumby in the DI U.S. collegiate ranks this season are hockey players Maggie Connors, also from St. John’s, and Gander’s Adam Dawe, and basketball player Cole Long, who also hails from the capital city.
In Texas, where Cumby is swimming for Texas Christian University, the St. John’s Legends product enjoyed a fine meet last weekend against Texas A&M in College Station, Tx.
Cumby, 18, registered a win for TCU in the 100 metre freestyle in 46.15, and had a second-place finish in the 50m free in 21.28.
A member of Swim Canada's national team identification squad, Cumby won a bronze medal in the Pan Pacific junior swimming championship last summer in Fiji. He delivered a blistering freestyle anchor leg to help Canada to third in the men's 4x100 medley relay.
Cumby and TCU will take on Ouachiota Baptist University of Arkansas and North Texas University in a meet this weekend in Fort Worth.
Up north, in Motown, Long is a junior (third year) forward with the University of Detroit-Mercy Titans men’s basketball team, 3-6 entering tonight’s game against the University of Toledo.
The 6-8 Long, who started 15 of 30 games last year, averaging 3.8 points per game and 2.6 rebounds. So far this season, he has an average of 2.6 points per game through seven games.
Long attended Booth Memorial high school before playing two seasons at the reputable Athlete Institute. He caught the eye of the Orangeville, Ont. school after finishing among the top scorers, rebounders and shot blockers in the 2014 under-17 nationals.
On the east coast, in Princeton, N.J., Connors is off to a strong start in her first season with the Princeton Tigers.
The 6-0-2 Tigers are also surging, too, sitting in first place in the ECAC conference and ranked sixth in the NCAA.
Entering two games this weekend against Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Union College in upstate New York, Connors has five goals and four assists through a dozen starts.
She was a member of Canada’s national development team last season, and was part of the under-18 team that won bronze in the 2018 IIHF Women’s World U18 Championship in Russia last January.
Before heading to Princeton in the fall, Connors attended Minnesota’s Shattuck-St Mary's Prep where she won four national championships in five seasons.
In the U.S. northeast, at one of college hockey’s top programs, Dawe is a freshman at the University of Maine, which has two national championships to its credit.
The Black Bears are struggling a bit this season, sitting at 3-3-2 in the Hockey East conference, and Dawe, a 5-8, 160-pound forward, is still looking for his first goal in 11 games. He has collected three assists.
Dawe skated for the Sioux Falls Stampede of the United States Hockey League last season, scoring 23 goals and 42 points in 56 games.
In 2016-17, he was the Canadian Junior Hockey League’s rookie of the year after piling up 19 goals and 64 points in 54 games for the Notre Dame Hounds of the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League.
