LEWISTON – Erik Baker and Vanessa Williamson were each honored by the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference for their performances for the Bates swimming and diving team on Tuesday afternoon.

Baker was named the ECAC Division III Men’s Diver of the Week. He set school and pool records in the one-meter diving event against Norwich Saturday with a score of 315.10. The score broke the mark of 311.20 set by Andrew Hastings on Jan. 13, 2001.

Williamson, of Auburn, was named the ECAC Division III Women’s Swimmer of the Week. She broke a pair of pool records in Sunday’s meet with Middlebury. She broke her own two-year-old pool record in the buttlerfly with a time of 2:08.35, beating her previous best performance by 15 seconds. Later in the meet, she snapped a 20-year-old record in the 100 individual medley.

USM’s Padgett earns honor

GORHAM – University of Southern Maine freshman forward Bevin Padgett was named the ECAC East Co-Rookie of the Week after leading the Huskies to a weekend sweep over the University of Massachusetts at Boston Beacons in womens’ ice hockey.

Padgett, who shared the award with Manhattanville College freshman defenseman Darcie Jarvis, tallied a pair of goals and set up two more for four points against the Beacons. She scored two goals and added an assist in the 6-5 win on Friday night and added an assist in the 2-1 win Sunday afternoon.

UMaine to offer shuttle service

ORONO – Due to cold weather, the University of Maine Athletic Department will be providing a free shuttle service from the steam plant parking lot to Alfond Arena for this Friday and Saturday night’s hockey games against Massachusetts.

Buses will be making continuous loops from the north end of the steam plant parking lot to the front doors of the arena beginning at 5:30 p.m. each night. Service will continue until approximately 10:30 p.m. each evening.

School to retire Bird’s No. 33

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (AP) – Larry Bird’s jersey No. 33, already retired by the Boston Celtics, will also be retired at Indiana State, where he led the Sycamores to the NCAA championship game 25 years ago. No one has worn that number at Indiana State since Bird left in 1979, but the university wants to make it official, athletic director Andi Myers said.

The jersey No. 54 of former player and coach Duane Klueh also will be retired in a ceremony at halftime of Indiana State’s home finale Feb. 28 against Northern Iowa.

“This is long overdue in both their cases,” Myers said.

Bird, now Indiana Pacers president of basketball operations, was an All-American and college player of the year in 1979, when he led the Sycamores to the nation’s No. 1 ranking and an unbeaten season until a loss to Michigan State in the NCAA championship game. He played 13 years with the Celtics and is a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame.

“Nobody around here is going to believe it, but in a few years not every kid growing up is going to know who Larry Bird is,” Myers said. “It’s very important, not only to our school but to people in the community, to remind them we have very rich tradition here.” Klueh played at Indiana State in 1946-49 and was the Helms Foundation player of the year in 1948. He then played in the NBA with Denver and Fort Wayne and returned to Indiana State as basketball and tennis coach.

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