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Coming off a season that saw its hopes of postseason basketball crushed in the first round of the inaugural Ivy League tournament, the expectations for the underclassmen-heavy Harvard men’s basketball team are fairly high—first place in the Ivy League high, to be exact.

Picked to finish first ahead of Yale and Princeton—the two teams that competed in the championship game of last year’s Ancient Eight tournament—the Crimson earned six first place votes in the preseason media poll. The Bulldogs finished three points behind the Crimson in the poll, earning eight first-place votes, with Princeton and Penn rounding out the top four.

Leading the way for the Harvard squad is its young core of sophomores—a class ranked 10th in the nation by ESPN in 2016. Sophomore guard Bryce Aiken, who was the first Crimson guard since Siyani Chambers ’17 to earn both Ivy League Rookie of the Year and first team All-Ivy honors, led the way for Harvard last season, averaging nearly 15 points a game.

Also in the talented class of sophomores are forwards Seth Towns, Chris Lewis, Robert Baker, and guard Justin Bassey. Aiken, Towns, Lewis, and Bassey all carved out starting roles last season for a team that went 18-10. Baker chipped in meaningful minutes off the bench near the end of the season.

All told, Harvard returns nearly 75 percent of its scoring from the previous year.

The sophomore class returns with plenty of experience from a season ago—after starting the season 1-4, with losses to Stanford, UMass, Holy Cross, and George Washington, the Crimson went on a 10-1 run that saw meaningful time for not only the three freshman who typically started, but also for much of the freshman class off the bench.

While Aiken and Towns came to be the Harvard’s go-to players on offense, Lewis carved out a role as a solid rebounder with strong moves in the post and Bassey established himself as the Crimson’s top defender.

Harvard returns three sophomores who all averaged over 25 minutes per game the previous season. Much like the year before, what will likely be the Crimson’s bench also brings plenty of depth—Baker, captain Chris Egi, junior forward Weisner Perez, and sophomore Henry Welsh all showed flashes of talent last season in their time on the floor.

Much like Harvard, Yale brings back plenty of talent from last season’s squad—this in the form of juniors Alex Copeland and Blake Reynolds, along with sophomore Miye Oni. Perhaps most notably, however, the Bulldogs bring back senior guard Makai Mason. Mason—who scored 31 points against Baylor in the 2016 NCAA tournament to give Yale a win in its first appearance since 1962—returns after a season where he didn’t see the hardwood due to a broken foot.

While the Crimson was unable to down the Bulldog’s in the Ivy Tournament last March, Harvard came away with two wins against Yale in the regular season, including the Bulldogs’ first home loss in over two years.

Princeton also returns some key pieces from last year’s squad including a talented backcourt in juniors Devin Cannaday and Myles Stephens as well as senior Amir Bell, but also lost some key pieces with the departure of Steven Cook and Spencer Weisz. The Tigers come off a season in which they went undefeated in conference—including two last-minute wins against the Crimson.

Penn, for its part, returns a talented duo in sophomores AJ Brodeur and Ryan Betley. The Quakers, however, did lose a talented guard following the graduation of Matt Howard—the then-senior dropped 24 points against Harvard in his team’s last game of the regular season to earn a spot at the Ivy League tournament.

Rounding out the bottom four spots is Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, and Brown. Last season, the four combined for a total of one win against Harvard, Yale, and Princeton. The advent of a new season wouldn’t indicate that much will change.

—Staff writer Troy Boccelli can be reached at troy.boccelli@thecrimson.com.

After 144 years of play, the Harvard football program boasts nine national championships, 14 Ivy League titles, and 20 inductees to the College Football Hall of Fame. It’s hard to be the first to do anything. Last Sunday, however, Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick proved that he’s still in the business of breaking Crimson records.

With a touchdown to tight end Cameron Brate ’14 in the fourth quarter against the Arizona Cardinals, Fitzpatrick completed the first Harvard-to-Harvard scoring pass in NFL history. While the Cardinals earned a 38-33 victory, the score testified to the growing relevance of Crimson players at the professional level.

Last Sunday, Fitzpatrick made it onto the field after an injury to starter Jameis Winston. Midway through the third quarter, the Cardinals held a 31-0 lead. Few could blame Tampa Bay fans for leaving the University of Phoenix Stadium. But Fitzpatrick, Brate, and company still had life.

A third-quarter score reduced the deficit to 31-6. Then, with 13:32 left, the unique event occurred. On third-and-goal from the 10, Fitzpatrick dropped back, scanned the field, and fired a rocket through a pack of defenders.

Another Crimson alumnus was waiting in the end zone. Brate had weaved his way through the Arizona secondary and turned to locate the ball. Hedging a defender with his shoulder, he reeled in the catch and tiptoed inbounds.

The touchdown sparked a larger rally, as the Buccaneers got within 38-33 with 2:02 left. However, the Cardinals recovered the ensuing onsides kick to clinch the contest.

Although nearly a decade apart, Fitzpatrick and Brate had strikingly similar Harvard experiences. The two Dunster House residents guided the Crimson to multiple Ancient Eight championships. As seniors, both players led their squads to 10-0 campaigns.

Fitzpatrick, a Mathematics concentrator, displayed his Harvard roots at the NFL combine, where he scored a whopping 48 out of 50 on the Wonderlic Test. That performance, which assessed cognitive ability, earned Fitzpatrick some pre-draft media attention.

Selected as the sixth-to-last pick in the 2005 NFL Draft, Fitzpatrick has stuck around for more than a decade. Now in his 13th year and on his seventh team, the quarterback has passed for over 26,000 yards and 169 touchdowns.

Meanwhile, Brate graduated from Harvard in 2014 with an Economics degree. Undrafted, he earned a roster spot through preseason tryouts. Last year, “The Brate Train” picked up speed by scoring eight touchdowns.

Having notched four scores already in 2017, Brate looks to further his success—perhaps with the help of a familiar quarterback.

After graduating seven seniors, the Harvard men’s hockey team enters the summer looking to fill a large void. And with the announcement of an eight-man incoming freshman class, the Crimson appears to be on its way to doing so.

The hockey program, coming off a campaign decorated by Beanpot, Ivy League, ECAC, and East Regional titles en route to the team’s first Frozen Four appearance since 1994, published Thursday that it will add the octet of rookies.

All eight skaters are American, and they represent six different states. Five are forwards, while three man the blue line.

At commencement this spring, Harvard took a hit in its forward ranks, losing six impactful players. These fourth-years were mighty in not only number but also skill. The Crimson’s class of 2017 notched the most points of any senior group in the country with 193. What’s more­, the majority are pursuing professional careers, whether abroad or in the National Hockey League (NHL) and American Hockey League (AHL).

With the graduation of 2016-2017 co-captain Alexander Kerfoot, the Crimson’s only pair of brothers was broken up. Younger sibling Colton, who remains on the squad as a rising sophomore, is seeking a larger role in Harvard’s forward corps this season.

But the 2017-2018 season brings another brotherhood in the locker room. Scituate, Mass., native Jack Donato, son of Crimson coach Ted ’91 and brother of rising junior Ryan, is among the incoming eight Harvard skaters. Donato has spent the past four years representing Dexter Southfield and the Cape Cod Whalers hockey program.

Joining Donato in the forward ranks is Jack Badini of Greenwich High School and the United States Hockey League’s (USHL) Chicago Steel, for which he served as an alternate captain in the team’s Clark Cup championship season. A large piece in the Steel’s title run, Badini tallied the most points in the playoffs. Before hoisting the hardware with the Steel, Badini played for the Lincoln Stars along with a fellow Crimson recruit Henry Bowlby, who joins the program from Edina, Minn.

Rounding out the rookie forwards are Mitchell Perreault from Findlay, Ohio, and Benjamin Solin from Madison, Conn. Perrault concluded his 2017 junior season with the Sioux Falls Stampede in the USHL, while Solin led his Phillips Exeter Academy team in points in 2016 before doing the same in 2017 as a rookie for the British Columbia Hockey League’s (BCHL) Nanaimo Clippers.

On the blue line, Harvard brings on another Edina native in Benjamin Foley, who captained the USHL’s Cedar Rapids Roughriders last season. The other two rearguards joining the program next season are Nick Azar, a Grosse Pointe, Mich., dweller who played for the USHL’s Tri-City Storm in 2016-2017, and Reilly Walsh, who hails from Andover, N.H.

Walsh ranked as high as 60th on Central Scouting’s final list leading up to the NHL Entry Draft and played alongside Badini as a member of the Steel in 2016-2017. The Proctor Academy product also played for Team USA in the Ivan Hlinka Memorial Tournament.

—Staff writer Spencer R. Morris can be reached at spencer.morris@thecrimson.com

How fast is sophomore sprinter Gabby Thomas? According to recent results, no one in the world is faster.

A couple weeks into the outdoor track season, Thomas is already rising to international contention. On March 31 at the Florida Relays, the sophomore ran a 200-meter dash in 22.60 seconds.

Coincidentally, no one in the world has run the event faster this outdoor season.

Tied for the best 2017 time in the world, Thomas shares the honor with Veronica Campbell-Brown from Jamaica, who achieved the feat the day before, and Felicia Brown, a recent graduate of the University of Tennessee. Campbell-Brown is an eight-time Olympic medalist and two-time Olympic Champion in the 200-meter, the race in which Thomas tied her time on the 31st.

The time isn’t even Thomas’ best of her collegiate career. In her rookie season, Thomas grabbed both the Harvard and Ivy League record in the 2016 NCAA Outdoor Championships. There, the then-freshman placed third with a time of 22.47 seconds. With the bronze finish, Thomas was also named a first team All-American in the event.

Thomas already has some experience with the Olympic process. Last season heading to the United States Olympic Trials, the Florence, Mass., native was one of three collegiate athletes to compete in the finals of the 200-meter dash. Thomas finished sixth in the field with a time of 22.72.

Also in her freshman season, Thomas set both school and Ivy League records in the outdoor 100- and 200-meter runs in addition to the indoor 60-meter race. She was also a member of 4x100 and 4x400-meter relay teams that broke school records.

Last weekend, Thomas didn’t compete in the 200-meter but instead took to the field, completing the long jump in the historic Harvard Yale Oxford Cambridge Track meet. She characteristically broke a 15-year school record and brought home gold in the field event.

Earlier this year, the indoor meets were not exempt from the dominance of the Florence, Mass., native. Thomas claimed eighth in the 200-meter dash and carried first team All-American honors yet again.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

CORRECTION: April 13, 2017

A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that Rebecca Nadler '14 was inducted into the Harvard Varsity Club Hall of Fame. Nadler will not be eligible for this honor until 2029.

Rebecca Nadler '14 will become the first Harvard skier to be chosen to the newly created William S. Broadbent Family Harvard Skiing All-Time Team. She will be honored later this year.

The class of 2017 inductee quickly became a dominant force in NCAA women’s alpine skiing beginning her freshman year. The Ottawa, Ont., native opened her collegiate career with a fourth-place finish at her first giant slalom race at the St. Lawrence Winter Carnival. She also had strong showings at giant slalom races at the Colby Winter Carnival before qualifying for the NCAA Championships during the 2010-2011 campaign.

Nadler only continued to achieve more success her sophomore year. She opened the 2011-2012 season with a sixth-place finish in the giant slalom event at the Bates Winter Carnival as well as with two second place finishes and a win at various other races before qualifying for the NCAA Championships for the second year in a row.

As a sophomore, the Nadler became the first Harvard skier, male or female, to win a national championship with a first place finish in the giant slalom event in Montana. Her winning time of 1:41.82 also earned her All-American status for the season. Nadler was also just the fourth woman from the Eastern Region of the NCAA to win the giant slalom title. She placed seventh in the slalom event to cap off her unprecedented campaign.

Nadler kept earning more accolades in the rest of her Harvard career, qualifying both her junior and senior year for the NCAA Championships. Ending her collegiate career on a high note, she once again received All-American status with a sixth place finish in the giant slalom event at the NCAA Championships her senior year.

The All-American and 2011 National Champion graduated in 2014 with a degree in neurobiology.