UVM SPORTS
photos by University Photography
Famiy business
Skiing, soccer, or physics, the latest Cochran excels at all
A two-sport varsity athlete, Amy Cochran is also an academic all-star who describes herself as an analytical person, always trying to figure out how things are done. “Life is like a chess game to me,” she says. “You want to reach your potential in everything you do, but how do you do that?”
The Catamount soccer player/skier, who was honored as the 2004-05 America East Women’s Scholar-Athlete, is following in the footsteps of a highly talented family of athletes. Both of her parents, Robert Cochran ’76 MD ’81 and Janet Lynch Schweizer ’78, excelled as student-athletes during their own UVM years. Robert competed in the 1972 Winter Olympics and won a national championship at UVM in the men’s downhill event in 1973. Janet, was arguably one of the best track and field athletes in UVM history, winning the ECAC pentathlon as a junior and senior. Both of Cochran’s parents are members of the Vermont Athletic Hall of Fame. And her older brother Jimmy, whom she calls her role model in skiing, also competed at Vermont for one season before leaving school to join the U.S. Ski Team, of which he is a current member.
“It’s great to have my family as a resource. They’ve competed at the highest levels, they’ve been there and done it so they can guide me,” Amy Cochran says. “Both my parents were my coaches when I was growing up. My dad was my ski coach and my mom was my track coach and having them around all the time was wonderful.”
This fall, Cochran played a key role in helping the Catamount soccer team, 8-9-1, make their first playoff appearance in seven years. Cochran led America East in scoring for the second straight year with 25 points, on nine goals and a league-high seven assists, and became the first Vermont player since 1997 to earn America East All-Conference First Team honors. The season’s highlights included scoring all four goals for Vermont in back-to-back 2-0 victories at Massachusetts and Binghamton, performances that earned Cochran America East Player of the Week and ECAC Division I Women’s Soccer Player of the Week recognition.
As she trades her cleats for skis this winter, Cochran will be looking to build on last year when she was one of the top-ranked alpine skiers in the East and earned a spot on the Catamounts’ NCAA team. She picked up two All-America citations at the national championships and had the top time after the first run of the slalom, before skiing off course (“a little detour” in Cochran’s words) on the second run. Vermont finished as the national-runner up at the 2005 NCAA Championships.
“It was an unbelievable experience to make the NCAA team. My coaches showed a lot of faith and confidence in me and that gave me a lot of confidence,” Cochran says. “It was a special moment to ski at Stowe, a mountain I have trained on many, many times, and have my friends and family able to be there and see me compete.”
Cochran credits soccer with keeping her in top shape for skiing and says the mental intensity of skiing has taught her how to maintain focus on the soccer field. If forced to choose, she admits to a greater passion for being on the pitch. Cochran spent the summer playing for the Vermont Lady Voltage in the W-League, the highest league in the United States, and was the team’s leading scorer.
When she’s not competing or training, Cochran spends her time studying, reading, or playing the guitar. She owns a 3.98 cumulative GPA as a physics major at Vermont. Why physics? “I had a very good teacher in high school that got me interested in the subject. I like math and the challenges that physics presents,” says Cochran. Her favorite class is quantum mechanics, an area where she plans to focus her senior thesis. (Cochran is a junior athletically in soccer, missing the fall semester of her freshman year with an injury, but is a senior academically and as a skier).
For all of her achievements as a soccer player and as a skier, Cochran has received the most accolades for her dual skills as an athlete and a student. In 2004-05, Cochran was one of two student-athletes in the country to earn a spot on two academic All-America teams in the same year. She was the program’s first academic All-American after earning a spot on the ESPN The Magazine Women’s Soccer Academic All-America Team.
Cochran followed that up by earning a spot on the same publication’s Women’s At-Large Academic All-America Team for her skiing exploits. Earning a spot on the at-large team was an impressive feat considering she was vying for a spot with student-athletes from 15 sports from around the country.
By all accounts, Cochran is winning that chess game of life. “I couldn’t be happier. My experience here has been great,” she says. “UVM has everything, great people, great town, great classes, and great athletics.”
by Lisa Champagne
SPORTS SHORTS
ACADEMICS: In a true multi-sport, multi-athlete team effort, Vermont won the America East Academic Cup in 2004-05 with a cumulative grade-point average among the student-athletes of 3.14, the highest in the 10-year history of the award. The University celebrated the achievement with a banner-hanging ceremony at the UVM-UNH men’s basketball game in December.
MEN’S SOCCER: Vermont hosted an America East Championship quarterfinal game for the second straight year at Centennial Field. The Catamounts fell to fifth-seeded Albany in the tournament, closing out the season with a record of 11-5-4. Corey Bronner was named to the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America team.
WOMEN’S SWIMMING: The UVM swimming and diving team opened with a 3-0 record for the first time since the 1991-92 season with victories over St. Francis, Niagara, and Siena.
WOMEN’S BASKETBALL: In mid-December, the women’s record stood at 4-4. Brittney Cross, Alexis Castro, and Amy Rosenkrantz earned spots on early season all-tournament teams with their outstanding play. In their last game before heading into final exams, the team put together a gritty comeback effort to defeat San Jose State in the consolation game of the Hawkeye Challenge at the University of Iowa.
MEN’S BASKETBALL: Mid-December, the men’s record stood at 2-4 in Coach Mike Lonergan’s first season. The Cats have a young team and a new look on the floor, but against a tough early schedule they made it clear that the excitement will continue in Patrick Gym this winter. More good news, freshman guard Mike Trimboli is emerging as the latest in a long line of sharp Catamount guards.
MEN’S HOCKEY: A tough ticket has gotten even tougher at Gutterson as the Cats played their way to an early season mark of 11-3-1 (5-3-1 in Hockey East) and a #3 national ranking. In their Hockey East debut year, Vermont became the first team to reach ten wins for the season. In early December, Torrey Mitchell and Brady Leisenring stood among the top five scorers in the conference.
TRACK & FIELD: Sophomore Carmen Lagala led Vermont at the season opening meet, Northeastern’s Husky Carnival. Lagala won the 500 meters with a time of 1:15.97 in the second qualifying heat, defeating six athletes from the first heat who were all seeded faster than her, including last year’s America East Conference champion.
ALUMNI: Libby Smith ’02, a two-sport standout in basketball and golf during her UVM years, earned a spot on the 2006 LPGA Tour by finishing second in the qualifying tournament in December. Not long before that competition, Smith also played her way to a position on the Ladies European Tour for the 2006 golf season. Taylor Coppenrath ’05 and T.J. Sorrentine ’05 are continuing their basketball careers playing for European teams this season. Coppenrath is with AEK Athens of the Greek AI (top) division, while Sorrentine started the year with Banca Nuova Trapani of the Italian second division.
(for UVM staff)