A record-setting field of 16 schools participated in the 57th annual Fenn Relays last Friday at Natowich Field. This biggest event of the track season in Brattleboro packed the grandstand and delivered outstanding performances.
As the dust settled, the Monadnock girls and the Mount Anthony boys were the 2014 team champions. The Bellows Falls girls came in sixth while the boys were fifth. Brattleboro's girls were eighth and the boys' were 10th.
Three records were set:
Starting the fireworks, the Monadnock girls A shuttle hurdles team, hauling it in at 49.8 seconds, smashed its own 2013 record of 50.2 seconds.
In the second event of the evening, the Mount Anthony girls 4 X 100 relay team, burning it up at 50.9 seconds, shattered the meet record of 51.7 seconds set by Lebanon in 1999.
The final event of the evening was the boys A medley relay. Three teams - Mount Anthony, Monadnock, and Lebanon - were separated by one point. In the end, it was Mount Anthony that raced away to set a record of 3:39.6, breaking Rutland's venerable 1985 record of 3:40.3.
Baseball
• A five-run fourth inning gave Brattleboro all the runs it needed in a 5-2 win at Mill River on April 29. Colonels pitcher Dan Richardson went the distance for the win, picking off a pair of base-runners while he was at it.
Rutland scored all of its runs in the fifth inning in a 4-1 win over Brattleboro last Thursday. Colonels starter Jimmy Mills held the Raiders scoreless through the first five innings before things broke down in the sixth.
• Leland & Gray started the week with wins against Green Mountain (5-4) on April 28 and West Rutland (11-7) on April 29.
Josh Donna and Jeremy Bovat split pitching duties against GM, with Bovat getting five strikeouts in two innings of relief to nail the win. Donna went 2-for-2 with two RBIs, while Bovat was 2-for-3 with one RBI.
The Rebels dug in for a big rally to beat West Rutland. Trailing 6-0 after three innings, Leland & Gray scored five runs in the fourth and six more in the sixth to complete the comeback and improve its standing to 3-1.
• Twin Valley lost a close one to Springfield, 4-3, in eight innings on April 29. Colin Lozito had one hit and three stolen bases, including a successful steal of home. Dal and Cade Nesbitt had three hits and six stolen bases between them. Sam Molner was the losing pitcher.
The Wildcats bounced back with a 9-8 win over West Rutland at Baker Field last Friday to improve Twin Valley's record to 2-3.
• Bellows Falls picked up a pair of home wins last week, evening its record to 3-3. BF used a nine-run second inning to rout Windsor, 11-0, on April 28. Carson Fullam and Zach Streeter teamed up to pitch a shutout. The Terriers shut down Mount Anthony May 2, 10-1. Fullam was the winning pitcher.
Softball
• Brattleboro got three runs on five singles and a walk to tie the game in the seventh, scoring the winning run in the 10th for a 4-3 win over Rutland last Thursday. Maddie Derosia had three hits for the 6-2 Colonels.
• West Rutland scored 17 straight runs to beat Bellows Falls, 17-2, on April 28 in Westminster. After BF's Chelsea Wilder hit a two-run homer in the first inning, it was all West Rutland. The Terriers fell mostly on walks and errors.
BF turned things around with a 23-8 rout of Burr & Burton on April 29 and an 8-6 win at Hartford on May 2, improving its season to 3-1.
• Leland & Gray lost four games last week to drop its standing to 1-5. The Rebels started the week with a pair of home losses: to Hartford April 28 at 4-1, and to Green Mountain April 30 at 8-4. Otter Valley handed the Rebels a 17-2 road loss last Thursday. The next day, the Rebels lost at Windsor, 6-3.
• Twin Valley got by Mount St. Joseph, 4-2, last Friday. Starting pitcher Jordan Niles got the win, and Colton Butler earned the save. Christina Moore went 2-for-3 with a triple and a two-run homer. Savannah Nesbitt tripled; Abby Putnam drove in a run for the 2-2 Wildcats.
Boys' lacrosse
• Brattleboro took off to a slow start against Hartford on April 30, but scored 13 unanswered goals to cruise to a 17-7 win in the rain at Natowich Field.
Brennen Zolnoski had the hot hand with seven goals with an assist. He got help from Sam Siegel (three goals), Jack Gagnon (two goals, three assists), Conner Elliott-Knaggs (two goals), Evan Perkins (one goal, three assists), Robyn Avery (one goal, one assist), and Kyle Patno (one goal, one assist).
Bryce Fletcher had three assists, and goalie Ian Cebek needed to make just four saves to earn the win.
The Colonels opened up Marble Valley League play two days later with a match in Bennington against Mount Anthony, and slogged their way through a 19-15 win.
Zolnoski (eight goals) and Siegel (four goals, six assists) again led the way for the Colonels, and the defense withstood a late rally by the Patriots. Gagnon chipped in three goals, Tanner Freeman had three goals and two assists, and Cebek stopped seven shots in goal for the 5-1 Colonels.
Girls' lacrosse
• The Brattleboro girls trounced the Hurricanes in a home-and-home series: first at Natowich Field, 18-4, on April 29, and then for good measure at Hartford, 19-5, on May 3.
Brattleboro's Lizzie Clark scored five goals, Hannah Lynde tallied four more, and Cassidy Stebbins got three goals as the Colonels built up an 11-1 lead by halftime April 29.
Anna Burch, Megan Siggins, and Alex Fellows each scored in the first half. Abbie Lesure enjoyed two second-half goals. Gaia Uman and Marissa Semenovich teamed up in goal for the victory.
Boys' tennis
• The Colonels continued their losing streak as Woodstock beat Brattleboro, 6-1, on April 28 but Lachlan Francis earned the first singles win of the season, needing two hours to take his match 6-7, 7-6, 10-8.
• Rutland swept the doubles matches and took four of the five singles matches in a 6-1 win over Bellows Falls. Lucas Clark, at No. 5, was the only singles winner for BF.
Girls' tennis
• Brattleboro played hard but fell 4-3 to Woodstock on April 28 at the BUHS courts.
In singles play, Brattleboro's Taylor Bird battled Morgan Hartman for a 6-1, 5-7, 10-7 win. The Colonels swept doubles, as No. 1 Grace Willingham and Jaida Henry felled Woodstock's Emma King and Elke Gersharte, 6-1, 6-2; No. 2 Aliza Racine and Danielle Looman beat Woodstock's Rose O'Brien and Sarah Frudisen, 6-2, 6-7, 10-5.
Though the Colonels picked up their first win of the season with a 4-3 decision over Hartford on April 29, they couldn't keep the momentum going, and fell 6-1 to Rutland on May 6 - to fall to 1-6 on the season.
• The Bellows Falls girls find themselves winless at the time of this writing, 0-4 for the season.