ADDISON COUNTY INDEPENDENT
B Section
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2017
MATT DICKERSON
SPORTS
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On steelhead, friendship and suffering I used to be able to count on my older brother Ted. Any time we planned a fishing trip together, something would happen to make it more interesting and challenging. Usually that “something” was rain or other inclement weather. It didn’t matter the location or time of year. I visited him once in Colorado. The temperature was in the 70s and the sky was clear the entire week before I arrived. My first morning in town, about the time we purchased my temporary fishing license, the sky clouded over and the temperature plummeted. By the time we actually got onto the river in the early afternoon, it had dropped 40 degrees and heavy wet snow was falling. We could plan a fishing trip to the desert, and if Ted and I were going together there would be a drenching thunderstorm churning nearby rivers into an unfishable frenzy. In hindsight, we should have rented out our services to drought-stricken areas of the country. For a fee, we could have planned a camping-fishing trip during the drought, and the moment we showed up a storm would move in and dump rain on the area. That meant not only I always had fodder for my writing, but I also always had an excuse for not catching fish. But about a decade ago, Ted began to fail me. It was about the time he moved to Alaska I think. I visited him up there, prepared for a week full of suffering and devoid of fish. And it turned out to be a week of great weather, with plenty of trout and salmon. I thought something must have been wrong so I planned a couple more trips to visit him. Time and time again he failed to provide any disasters at all. Maybe it was just Alaska, I thought. But then the same thing happened last summer when he moved back to New England and we did some fishing together in Maine. Maine is the state where we have enjoyed the most weather-related disasters together. We have years of memories of leaking tents, freezing (See Dickerson, Page 3B)
VERGENNES UNION HIGH School senior Dylan Bradford hooks in a shot against Middlebury Tuesday night.
Independent photo/Trent Campbell
Late run pushes Tigers past VUHS Commodores’ rally comes up short By ANDY KIRKALDY VERGENNES — When teams not enjoying the best of winters square off late in the season, games take on extra meaning — they become chances for precious wins. If the game is a county rivalry, such as the Middlebury Union High
School boys’ basketball team’s visit to Vergennes on Tuesday, the stakes get even higher. And Tuesday’s contest didn’t disappoint for entertainment value, as the Tigers fought off the Commodores’ second-half rally to win, 6257, in the process erasing a 56-54
TIGER SENIOR TREY Kaufmann goes over Commodore Lance Bergmans for a basket Tuesday night in Vergennes. Kaufmann scored 17 points in the 62-57 Middlebury win.
Independent photo/Trent Campbell
VUHS lead with 4:16 to go with a game-closing 8-1 run. Junior guard Cody Pomainville helped account for all eight of those points. He drove to tie the game at 3:50, and after neither team could score for almost three minutes drove again, lost the handle, regained con-
trol, and dished to senior guard Pierson Beatty for the go-ahead lay-up at 1:15. That play came after Pomainville stole the ball at the other end. Pomainville — who finished tied with Commodore senior guard Adam Gill for game honors with 25 points — then sank four straight
ScoreBOARD Pitts takes track three-peat; Ganey gets gold HIGH SCHOOL SPORTS Boys’ Hockey 2/8 MUHS at Colchester.........................Late Girls’ Hockey 2/8 MUHS at Mt. Mansfield.....................Late Boys’ Basketball 2/6 MSJ vs. OV.....................................74-53 2/7 MUHS vs. VUHS............................62-57 2/7 Milton at Mt. Abe.................. Ppd. to 2/13 Girls’ Basketball 2/6 Milton vs. VUHS.............................29-28 2/7 OV at Mt. Anthony..................Postponed 2/8 VUHS at Colchester.........................Late 2/8 Mt. Abe at MUHS..............................Late COLLEGE SPORTS Women’s Hockey 2/8 Midd. at Plattsburgh..........................Late
Schedule
HIGH SCHOOL SPORTS Boys’ Hockey 2/11 CVU at MUHS..............................7 p.m. 2/15 MUHS at St. Albans.....................7 p.m. 2/18 MUHS at Stowe......................6:30 p.m. Girls’ Hockey 2/10 South Burlington at MUHS..........5 p.m. 2/15 MUHS at Colchester...............4:30 p.m. 2/18 MUHS at Northfield....................... Noon Boys’ Basketball 2/9 OV at Fair Haven...........................7 p.m. 2/10 St. Albans at MUHS.....................7 p.m. 2/10 VUHS at Mt. Abe.........................7 p.m. 2/13 VUHS at Montpelier.....................7 p.m. 2/13 Milton at Mt. Abe..........................7 p.m. 2/15 Missisquoi at VUHS.....................7 p.m. 2/15 Mt. Abe at MUHS.........................7 p.m. 2/15 MSJ at OV...................................7 p.m. 2/17 MUHS at Colchester....................7 p.m. 2/18 VUHS at Milton.....................11:30 a.m. 2/18 Mt. Abe at St. Albans............12:30 p.m. 2/18 MUHS at Miissisquoi..............1:30 p.m. 2/18 OV at Proctor..........................2:30 p.m. Girls’ Basketball 2/10 Fair Haven at OV.........................7 p.m.
(See Schedule, Page 2B)
By ANDY KIRKALDY NORTHFIELD — Mount Abraham Union High School junior Lydia Pitts won three times and Middlebury senior Henry Ganey won once to highlight local athletes’ efforts at Saturday’s indoor track and field Division II championship meet at Norwich University. Pitts swept the girls’ 55-meter hurdles, long jump and triple jump for the second straight year, although she came up just short of her 2016 D-II record-setting marks in the two jumping events. However, Pitts did set two new marks during the
course of the season, lowering her 55 hurdles record to 8.83 seconds on Jan. 2 and extending her triple jump standard to 36 feet, one-half inch on Jan. 14. Ganey won the boys’ 600-meter race, and other Tiger athletes also fared well: junior Chloe Kane earned second- and third-place finishes in girls’ sprinting events, and senior Ross Crown was second in the boys’ 1,600. Leading the Vergennes contingent were two fourth-place finishers, senior Sadie Kass in the girls’ 1,000 and sophomore Wade Mullin in the
boys’ 600. GIRLS’ RESULTS: The D-II girls’ winners and local finishers Saturday’s meet at Norwich were: • 55 Meter Dash: 1. Sonia John, 7.38, Rice; 2. Kane, 7.58, MUHS; 7. Megan Rooney, 7.97, VUHS; 8. Trinity Bryant, 7.98, MUHS. • 300 Meters: 1. Sonia John, 42.59, Rice; 3. Kane, 46.05, MUHS; 7. Trinity Bryant, 47.16, MUHS; 9. Kiana Plouffe, 48.79, MUHS; 21. Virginia Patz, 50.64, MUHS; 22. Alyse Beauchemin, (See Track, Page 2B)
Hodges and Volz both win in three-day Nordic event By ANDY KIRKALDY RICHMOND — Middlebury Union High School Nordic skiers Sam Hodges and Ursula Volz were the individual winners of the threeday Tour de Chittenden, which drew competitors from 13 schools around northern Vermont to races held this past Thursday, Saturday and Monday. Volz swept all three of her events, Thursday’s 2.5-kilometer skate race in Colchester, Saturday’s 3K classic race on the Sleepy Hollow course in Huntington, and Monday’s uphill climb hosted by Cochran’s Ski Area in Richmond. Her three-day total time of 30:05 bested second-place finisher Marika Massey-Bierman of Burlington by 36 seconds. Hodges won Monday’s climb, took second in Saturday’s 5K and finished seventh in Thursday’s skate race. His (See Nordic, Page 2B)
TIGER KATE OSTER competes during the three-day Tour de Chittenden Nordic meet.
Photo by Bruce Ingersoll
free throws in the final 33 seconds to ice a win that improved MUHS to 3-11. Both of those trips to the line came after Tiger junior guard Andre Trudeau rebounded Commodore misses. Pomainville said the local rivalry (See Basketall, Page 3B)
Otter boys, VUHS girls lose in hoop
ADDISON COUNTY — Local high school hoop teams found the going tough earlier this week, as the Otter Valley boys and the Vergennes girls came up short. Two games set for Tuesday were postponed. The game at Mount Abraham pitting the Eagle boys vs. Milton was moved to Feb. 13, and the OV girls’ visit to Mount Anthony was called off, with no immediate make-up date set. The Middlebury boys visited Vergennes on Tuesday; see story on Page 1B. OTTER BOYS The OV boys lost to host Mount St. Joseph on Monday, 74-53, their second setback of the winter to the 12-3 Mounties. Jelani Williams led MSJ with 14, and former Otter Kai Norwood was one of two Mounties with 14 points. Derek Aines led four Otters in double figures with 14 points: Joining him were Payson Williams (11) and Dylan Mackie and Josh Letourneau (10 each). The Otters are 9-6 and remain in seventh place in Division II. They have a tough schedule ahead, including an MSJ rematch, two games with Fair Haven, one at D-I Burr & Burton, and one at Proctor. VUHS GIRLS On Monday visiting Milton held on to edge the VUHS girls, 29-28, in a defensive battle. The Yellowjackets, led by Cassidy Button’s 17 points, were up by seven points in the fourth quarter, but the Commodores cut the lead to one and had a shot to win at the buzzer go astray. Becca Maloy notched seven points and 10 rebounds as the Commodores dropped to 7-6.