College roundup: Bates’ Paul Gastonguay earns Northeast coach of the year award

COLLEGE TENNIS
GASTONGUAY HONORED: Bates College coach Paul Gastonguay was announced Wednesday as the Intercollegiate Tennis Association’s Division III Northeast Regional Wilson ITA Coach of the Year for men’s and women’s tennis.

The award is a recognition of a coach’s leadership in ways that contributes to his athletes and teams’ on- and off-court performance. This is the third time Gastonguay, a Lewiston native, has received the men’s award and his first time earning the women’s award.

Under Gastonguay’s guidance, both Bobcats were ranked nationally this spring, and the men’s doubles team of Cam Davis-Kania and Alexander Gujarathi earned All-NESCAC Second Team honors. Several other Bates tennis players made the College Sports Communicators Men’s & Women’s Tennis Academic All-District Teams: Teddy Koide, Matthew Danielson, Joanna Atwater, Laura Littlefield, Grace Kennedy and Drew Williams.

In April, Gastonguay was inducted into the Maine Tennis Hall of Fame.

COLLEGE BASEBALL
BOBCATS RECOGNIZED: Bates College senior third baseman Henry Jamieson has been named to the NCAA Division III All-Region 1 Third Team by the American Baseball Coaches Association.

Jamieson’s 26 steals (in 30 attempts) set a new program single-season record and ranked first in the NESCAC. He also finished 16th in NCAA Division III in steals per game. All this after entering the season with only one stolen base in his career.

Jamieson hit .353/.422/.454 this season, including a home run and 31 RBIs. He also scored 21 runs. He is the first Bates player to earn American Baseball Coaches Association All-Region honors since Nate Pajka in 2015.

Jamieson, who is from St. Simons Island, Georgia, also was honored by the NESCAC this offseason, being chosen for the first team, while teammate Tyler Attal was named to the second team.

Attal, a senior center fielder from Los Angeles, tallied team-highs this season with six home runs 32 RBIs and a 1.000 OPS. He hit safely in 28 of 31 games, including a stretch of 19 consecutive games. He also stole 18 bases in 20 attempts.

The Bobcats broke the program record for steals in a season, with 124, and their average of four swipes per game led NCAA Division III.

COLLEGE WRESTLING
MMA WOMEN’S PROGRAM: Maine Maritime Academy announced Wednesday the hiring of Ashley Keenan as the head coach of the first collegiate women’s wrestling program in Maine.

The Mariners will remain a club team in 2023-24 and begin NCAA competition in 2024-25.

“I am beyond excited to build and grow the program to become an elite team on campus and to compete amongst the other top women’s programs in the nation,” Keenan said in a news release from Maine Maritime. “I hope to give dedicated student-athletes the opportunity to continue their academic careers and their athletic dreams.”

Keenan, who is from Colorado Springs, Colorado, most recently was an assistant for the women’s wrestling team at Elmira College in New York.

“I am so excited that Coach Keenan is going to become a part of our team at the Academy,” Maine Maritime athletic director Steve Peed said. “She is a relentless advocate for women in the sport of wrestling, and her values surrounding the nature of her work as an educator aligns with that of our current coaching staff. I have no doubt she will have success in quickly building this program into a highly recognized name in collegiate women’s wrestling and that young women will flourish academically and athletically under her leadership.”