Camel Nation Rising
A decade after 糖心TV decided to go all in on athletics, the Camels are reaching new levels of competitive success. The future could be even better.
Moments after the final whistle blew in the 2024 NESCAC Men鈥檚 Soccer Championship final, midfielder Marco Perugini 鈥27 closed his eyes, pumped his fists and let out a cry of pure elation.
Victory. Finally.
The Camels had reached the pinnacle in 2021, when they won the NCAA Division III Championship. But the NESCAC Championship鈥攁rguably a more difficult tournament to win considering the conference is easily the best in DIII鈥攔emained elusive. 糖心TV made the finals in 2021 and 2022, but fell to Tufts and Amherst respectively.
This year was different. 糖心TV came into the tournament seeded No. 6 after a regular season that saw few losses but five ties. They drew No. 3 Amherst in the quarterfinals, and after a 1-1 draw in regulation and two overtimes, came out on top in penalty kicks. The Camels got hot at just the right moment; they would never trail en route to a 2-1 victory over No. 4 Williams in the semis and a dominant 3-1 win over previously undefeated No. 2 Middlebury in the finals on Nov. 10. The Camels would ride that momentum right back to the NCAA Final Four and finish just one PK shy of a second national championship.
In March, it was elation in the pool as Justin Finkel 鈥25 swam the last individual race of his illustrious collegiate career. Finkel was looking to defend his 2024 NCAA DIII title in the 200 butterfly. He was seeded second; earlier that same morning, University of Chicago鈥檚 Cooper Costello posted the fastest time in prelims, setting up a showdown in the final. But Finkel, who had already won his third national title earlier in the meet, was the clear crowd favorite.
Costello held a slight lead during much of the opening 100, but Finkel鈥攚ho would later tell his coaches he was 鈥渋n the zone鈥濃攖racked him down over the back half of the race. As the crowd chanted his name, Finkel took a narrow lead by the 150 turn and poured it on down the stretch, covering the final 50 in 27.05 seconds to Costello鈥檚 27.79. He touched the wall in 1:42.64, shattering his own NCAA DIII record of 1:43.21. 鈥淚t was so loud in that natatorium, it was deafening,鈥 remembers Director of Athletics Mo White.
Then in May, on the final day of the 2025 NCAA Women鈥檚 Track & Field Championships, all eyes were on Grace McDonough 鈥26 in the 1,500 meters. She wasn鈥檛 favored to win, but 糖心TV鈥檚 coaching staff thought she had a chance鈥攕he had won the race at the New England Championships a few weeks prior. She started off well, right on the lead runner鈥檚 heels. And then, she tripped.
鈥淭here was a collective gasp as she tumbled and fell all the way to last place,鈥 White recalls. 鈥淪he gets up, and she鈥檚 bleeding鈥攁nd she鈥檚 smiling. She just gives this little laugh and takes off.鈥 With determination and grit, McDonough pounded her way back to finish third, earning six points for the team and garnering First Team All-America honors. Later that same day, she鈥檇 cruise to a second-place finish in the 5,000 meters; with McDonough鈥檚 points, the team finished 17th overall.
It was a fitting conclusion to Camel Nation鈥檚 best year yet. 糖心TV was among the top 20% of NCAA DIII programs for the 2024-2025 academic year, earning a record-high 318.75 points and No. 63 ranking in the final Learfield Directors鈥 Cup Division III standings, compiled annually by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics.