By Jennifer Toland TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
jtoland@telegram.com

WPI quarterback Mike Swanton can toss a football about 55 yards, but he can no longer throw a baseball 60 feet.

"I can barely throw it 20 feet," said Swanton, a former pitcher for the Engineers.

In the spring of 2008, Swanton was about 50 pitches into a warmup session when he felt an intense burning sensation in his right elbow. A pitcher since his Little League days, Swanton had experienced elbow pain before, but nothing ice and rest couldn't quell. He tried that method again, but when he returned to the mound two weeks later, the pain was worse and after only 20 pitches, he had to shut it down.

He was diagnosed with a second-degree tear of the ulnar collateral ligament.

In order to pitch again, Swanton was facing Tommy John surgery and probably a year until full recovery. He was still able to swing a bat, though, and became WPI's full-time DH and batted .330 with four home runs that season.

As for throwing a football? "I figured I couldn't," Swanton said. But one day at baseball practice there was a football lying in the grass, and Swanton picked it up.

"I was just screwing around with it and then I threw it," he said. "No pain. So I threw it again. No pain."

Swanton decided against having surgery, and after a summer of rehab and strengthening, he backed up Justin Wells at quarterback last year. This season, in his first collegiate start, Swanton completed 23 of 37 passes for 288 yards and a touchdown in WPI's opening win over Salve Regina. Swanton came out of last week's game at Worcester State with a thumb injury, but expects to play tomorrow at Becker.

"Playing quarterback here is a challenge because you have to have an in-depth knowledge of everything," Swanton said, "but I think playing quarterback is absolutely the most fun thing you can do."

As his doctor explained to Swanton, throwing a baseball and the whipping motion of pitching puts more stress on the elbow, especially with offspeed pitches, than throwing a football.

Swanton has a clicking in his elbow and sometimes when he wakes up in the morning it is stiff, but it doesn't really impact his daily activities.

The Engineers are 2-0 for the seventh straight year, but still have work to do.

"Our offense kind of carried us in the first game and our defense carried us against Worcester State (25-0 win) when our offense sputtered a bit," Swanton said. "We have to put the two together."

'Saders ready for test

Holy Cross is 2-0 and this week moved up two spots to No. 23 in the Sports Network FCS poll, but the Crusaders know they will face perhaps their sternest test of the season tomorrow when they play Harvard at Fitton Field.

"The game will be a great measuring stick for us at this point in the year," HC coach Tom Gilmore said. "Harvard has been a very good team, and we suspect they're going to be a very good team this year as well. It's going to show us where we are at this point in the season."

It's the 2009 opener for No. 25 Harvard, which went 9-1 last year and was co-champion of the Ivy League.

After graduating a pair of All-Ivy quarterbacks in Chris Pizzotti and Liam O'Hagan, the Crimson will turn the offense over to junior QB Collier Winters, who appeared in six games as a freshman, but will be making his first career start against HC.

Harvard has a deep receiving corps and, as usual, is big and physical up front on both sides of the ball.

The Crimson have won 10 of the last 12 games in the series, but the last two games - a 31-28 HC win in 2007 and a 25-24 Harvard victory last year - have been decided by a total of four points. The rivalry is one of the longest standing in Holy Cross history and one the Crusaders get up for every year.

"It's just another game," junior safety Anthony DiMichele said, "but at the same time there's more to play for."

In last year's game, Harvard came back from a 24-12 deficit with 9:28 to play. Second-half turnovers hurt Holy Cross.

Holy Cross outscored its first two opponents, Georgetown and Sacred Heart, 72-28, while piling up 995 yards of total offense.

"We're getting better," Gilmore said, "but we also know that there's still a lot of room to improve and we're going to have to improve. No offense to Georgetown or Sacred Heart, but Harvard is the best team we've faced so far and we're going to have to improve our techniques and our reads and get things polished up. But we're also a good football team and I suspect our opponent is going to have to play well to beat us."

Award-winning locals

Assumption junior running back Herb Woodard was named the Northeast-10 Conference Offensive Player of the Week. Woodard rushed for 175 yards and four touchdowns in the Greyhounds' 31-10 win over New Haven last Friday night. Woodard has opened the year with three straight 100-yard rushing performances. ... For the second straight week, HC freshman running back Eddie Houghton was named Patriot League Rookie of the Week. Houghton carried 10 times for 80 yards against Sacred Heart and scored his first career TD. ... WPI freshman cornerback Elante Moore was named the Liberty League Rookie of the Week after his three-interception performance against Worcester State.

Also in action ...

Worcester State plays at Nichols at 7 tonight. The Bison's last win came against the Lancers last Sept. 19. Sophomore quarterback Sean Smith-Vaughn tied a Nichols record with 53 pass attempts in last week's loss to Framingham. ... In action tomorrow, Anna Maria is at Husson at 1 and Fitchburg State hosts UMass Dartmouth at 1:30.

Story appeared in Worcester Telegram and Gazette - Friday, September 18th
http://telegram.com/article/20090918/COLUMN11/909189980/1009/SPORTS