Road races on Thanksgiving Day can be elaborate affairs. Then there's the annual Turkey Trot in Brattleboro, sponsored by the Red Clover Rovers (RCR) running club.
It's a three-mile out-and-back race on the RCR's fun run course on Upper Dummerston Road. There's no advance registration and no entry fee, save for those attending being asked to bring a food item. The items are collected during the race check-in, and then runners pick out an item as their award after they finish - so the fastest runners get first dibs on the goodies.
Despite a 25-degree morning with a breeze that made it feel more like 10 degrees, and patches of snow and ice on the road left over from the night before, 236 runners turned out for this year's race.
Landen Elliott-Knaggs and Tammy Richards, last year's winners, repeated as the top finishers this year in the three-mile event.
Elliott-Knaggs, 22, of Dummerston again won the men's race with a time of 16 minutes, 30 seconds. Kalle Jahn, 22, of Brattleboro was second in 16:36; Rob Lind, 27, of Brattleboro was third in 17:04.
Richards, 39, of Williamsville was the first female finisher in 18:54, which was the 13th fastest time overall. Heather Kolpa, 33, of Worcester, Vt., was second in 19:55, followed by Jennifer Sprague, 39, of Dover, N.H., who was third in 20:10.
Ferrisburgh's Max Ratti, 14, was the boys' winner of the one-mile race in 6:47. Brattleboro's Eva Gould, 7, was the first girl across the line at 12:06. For complete results, visit www.redcloverrovers.com.
BF teen organizes race for Our Place
• A Bellows Falls teen aims to get everyone fit for the holidays - and help fill the shelves at the local food pantry at the same time.
Chapin Reis, a Bellows Falls Union High School senior, is organizing a 5K Reindeer Run on Saturday, Dec. 14, to benefit Our Place Drop-in Center. The run begins and ends at the Bellows Falls Rec Center, with registration at 10:30 a.m. and the start at 11. The entry fee is $10 or 10 non-perishable food items.
Look for a raffle, prizes, and refreshments at the end of the race. Costumes appropriate to the season are encouraged.
Reis said she was inspired in organizing the event by a quote attributed to Winston Churchill: “We make a living by what we get; we make a life by what we give.”
“Being able to provide one more meal to someone who needs it is a kind gesture that will soon spread throughout the entire community,” Reis said.
For more information, write Reis at [email protected].
Saluting the fall stars
• Brattleboro's Colby McGinn was named to the All-State Division I football team as a first team outside linebacker. Middlebury's Dennis Smith was named the Division I Coach of the Year. His Tigers defeated South Burlington, 26-6, in the 2013 championship game.
Brattleboro's Chris McAuliffe (offensive line) was named to the second team, while honorable mention selections included McGinn (fullback), Adam McPhail (running back), and Kyle Shippee (inside linebacker).
• Bellows Falls forward Mariah Barnett was named to the Marble Valley League and Twin State field hockey teams. BF's Kya Coursen and Emily Dufault, along with Brattleboro's Kayla Savage, were also named to the MVL squad.
• Making the All-State girls soccer team are Twin Valley's Hannah Swanson and Savannah Nesbitt, and Leland & Gray's Giannina Gaspero-Beckstrom.
Named to the Marble Valley team are Brattleboro's Abbie Lesure and Leland & Gray's Emily Stockwell, along with Swanson, Nesbitt, and Gaspero-Beckstrom. Jessica Fox (Twin Valley), Emily Thibault (Leland & Gray), and Lydia Pedigo (Bellows Falls) were all named to the MVL's second team.
• In boys soccer, Twin Valley's Eli Park, Dal Nesbitt, and Colin Lozito were all named All-State after helping the Wildcats to an undefeated season and the Division IV championship. Leland & Gray's Adam Beattie also made the team.
Named to the MVL first team were Brattleboro's Conner Elliot-Knaggs, Beattie, Lucas Clark, and Liam Shaw of Bellows Falls, and the Twin Valley trio of Park, Nesbitt, and Lozito. Twin Valley's Sam Molner and Cade Nesbitt each made the MVL's second team.
Twin Valley's Buddy Hayford was named coach of the year in the MVL's C Division.
Football realignment comes up again at VIFL meeting
• At the Vermont Interscholastic Football League's annual end-of-season meeting last month, there was yet another hot and heavy discussion on rearranging the current three divisions in high school football. Normally, realignment is done every two years, but with enrollment and participation constantly in flux, it almost needs to be an annual event.
Why? Right now, the VIFL looks at total school enrollment, program participation numbers, and recent history in determining which school plays in what division. Thus, there are 13 schools in Division I, with Brattleboro and Mount Anthony the only schools south of Route 4. There are only eight schools in Division II, including Bellows Falls. Division III has 12 teams, including some of the smallest schools in the state.
It's a little lopsided, particularly for the bottom teams in each division. In Division III, the bottom half of the league was a combined 11-41.
Some have called for a return to the four-division alignment, which Vermont used from 1992 to 2006. This makes more sense to me. Writing in the Burlington Free Press' Varsity Insider blog (http://bfpne.ws/12QbQkm), Austin Danforth offered this proposal for what a four division set-up might look like with each team's combined record for the last two years:
Division I (nine teams, all currently D-I): BFA-St. Albans (12-8), Brattleboro (5-13), Champlain Valley (12-7), Essex (12-7), Hartford (17-3), Middlebury (17-3), Rutland (9-8), South Burlington (13-7), St. Johnsbury (5-13).
Division II (eight teams): Burlington (6-11 in D-I), Burr and Burton (10-9 in D-II), Colchester (8-10 in D-I), Lyndon (14-6 in D-II), Mount Anthony (2-15 in D-I), Mount Mansfield (7-11 in D-I), Rice (19-2 in D-II), Spaulding (2-16 in D-I/II).
Division III (eight teams): Bellows Falls (15-6 in D-II), Fair Haven (11-8 in D-II), Mill River (16-5), Milton (10-8 in D-II), Otter Valley (8-10 in D-II/III), North Country (0-18 in D-II), U-32 (9-9 in D-II/III), Woodstock (22-0 in D-III).
Division IV (eight teams, all currently in D-III): BFA-Fairfax (15-5), Mount Abraham (12-8), Mount St. Joseph (2-16), Oxbow (6-12), Poultney (8-10), Springfield (1-16 in D-II/III), Windsor (7-10), Winooski (3-15 in D-III).
I like Danforth's idea of such a realignment: it's done after each season, adjusts with school enrollments and participation, keeps a fair level of competition, and prevents the smaller schools from getting clobbered week after week by bigger schools with larger rosters.
The difficulty would be in convincing some of the Division I and II schools to drop down a division.
As for the local teams, Bellows Falls has mostly succeeded no matter which division it has played in over the past two decades. This year, BF made it into the semifinals despite having the second-lowest male enrollment figures (197) in Division II. Only Rice (183) has fewer boys, according to figures from the Vermont Principals Association.
Brattleboro has had more down seasons than up in recent years, but they have a smaller male enrollment (459) than Mount Anthony (507). You make as strong a case for Brattleboro to drop down as you can for Mount Anthony, but these two schools have long football traditions and would see a drop down to Division II as a big comedown.
Nothing is likely to change in time for the 2014 season, but it's something to think about when the next realignment cycle comes up next year.