Time to hang a new banner in the BUHS gym.
The Brattleboro Colonels varsity bowling team won its first-ever Division I state championship on March 5 in Colchester. Even sweeter, they beat Essex, the Chittenden County school that has broken Colonels fans hearts in so many different sports.
The starting lineup for the top-seeded Colonels consisted of Jacob Girard, Dorien Phillips, Kelton Mager, Tucker Sargent, and Thomas Bell, with Charlie Forthofer as a spare.
The first opponent was Fair Haven in a best-of-seven series. Brattleboro won the first three games, but Fair Haven rallied to win the next two before the Colonels won the deciding sixth game to advance into the semifinals.
In the semifinal against Burlington, Brattleboro rallied from a 2-1 deficit to win the next three games and advance into the final match against Essex.
It was a nailbiter all the way. Brattleboro won the first game, 212-191. Essex took the second game, 211-152. The third game ended in a 164-164 tie after 10 frames, and the two teams had to do a roll-off. Sargent and Bell came through in the extra two frames to put the Colonels back into the lead.
Essex won the fourth game, 169-168, to even the match, but Brattleboro responded with a 170-154 win in game five and a 153-134 win in the sixth game to clinch the title.
Bowling has been a varsity sport at BUHS since the 2014-15 season, and the program has slowly and steadily improved under coach Will Bassett. Now, they have a state championship as proof that the sport has come a long way in a short amount of time.
BF boys reach D-III semis
• In his Division III boys' basketball playoff preview, Adam Aucoin of the Rutland Herald called the No. 12 Windsor Yellow Jackets “the lower seed nobody wants to play” because they “are scrappy as they come and always hang around in games you may not think they have any business being in.”
He also called the fifth-seeded Bellows Falls Terriers a “dark horse” pick to make it to the Final Four at the Barre Auditorium on the strength of BF winning eight of their last nine regular season games.
Bellows Falls and Windsor faced off in the opening round of the Division III playoffs at Holland Gymnasium on March 1 and the Yellow Jackets made BF sweat a little before the Terriers prevailed in a 55-41 win.
Windsor opened the game with a 7-0 run before the BF offense got it together and blitzed the Jacks with a 15-0 run that put the Terriers in front to stay. Colby Dearborn started the run with a pair of three-pointers and finished it with a jump shot. He finished the game with 21 points, including four three-pointers.
Cole Moore scored five of eight points off the bench in the second quarter as BF led 26-17 at the half. The BF defense did the rest as they held Windsor's best player, guard Maison Fortin, to just 12 points. Travis McAllister and Bradley Bowers added nine and eight points, respectively.
Jamison Nystrom was BF's second leading scorer with 12 points as the Terriers advanced to the quarterfinals and a trip to the Canadian border on March 6 to face the fourth-seeded Richford Falcons. Despite the long bus trip, Bellows Falls came away with a 54-51 win. The Terriers will now take on top-seeded and undefeated Winooski in the Division III semifinal at the Aud on March 9.
• Twin Valley had an early exit from the Division IV playoffs. The No. 13 Wildcats lost to fourth-seeded Mid-Vermont Christian, 55-25, in a first-round game on March 1. The Wildcats ended their season with a 4-18 record.
Nordic skiing
• How confident about winning the Division I state championship were the Burlington girls? Confident enough that they printed up championship shirts ahead of the final day of competition on Feb. 28 at Rikert Nordic Center in Ripton.
Burlington clinched their third state title in a row with a score of 58, well ahead of runner-up Mount Anthony (125), third-place Champlain Valley (168), and fourth-place Mount Mansfield (215). Brattleboro finished sixth with 288 points
Gillian Fairfax won the 5K girls' classic race in 17 minutes, 6.7 seconds to key a 1-2-3 finish in that event by Burlington. The Seahorses also handily won the girls' relay race.
Ava Whitney led the Brattleboro girls with a 10th place finish in 19:15.1, followed by Katherine Normandeau (15th,19:52.1), Maeve Bald (27th, 21:14), Anna Cummings (38th, 22:40.7), Priya Kitzmiller (45th, 24:17.3), and Addison DeVault (51st, 26:08.3). In the relay race, the Colonel quartet of Whitney, Bald, Cummings, and Normandeau turned in a fifth place finish.
In the boys' event, Mount Anthony cruised to a first-place finish for the Patriots' first state Division I title in four years. Luke Rizio, who won the Division I boys' individual title last season skiing for Twin Valley, repeated as state champ as he scorched the 5K course in 14:04.8. The Patriots finished 1-2-3 in the individual race and also won the relay.
The Brattleboro boys finished fifth. The Colonel top five were Gabriele Jeppesen-Belleci (26th,17:05.9), Nico Conathan-Leach (28th,17:10.9), Willow Sharma (33rd, 17:46.5), Desmond Longsmith (39th,18:24.4), and Oliver Herrick (40th, 18:28.3). Eben Wagner finished in 50th place with a time of 19:28.2. The relay team of Jeppesen-Belleci, Sharma, Longsmith, and Conathan-Leach finished fifth.
Senior bowling roundup
• Week 7 of the winter/spring season of the Brattleboro Senior Bowling League at Brattleboro Bowl on March 2 saw The Markers (26-9) maintain their hold on first place. Slo Movers (24-11) had a 4-1 week to remain in second place, followed by Split Happens and Fab Four (both 18-17), The A-1's (7-18), Trash-O-Matic (15-19), The Strikers (12-23), and 10 Pins (9-26).
Nancy Dalzell had the women's high handicap game (226), while Roberta Parson had the high handicap series (629). Doug Switzer had the men's high handicap game (249) and Norm Corliss had the high handicap series (684). Slo Movers had the high team handicap game (909) and series (2,529).
In scratch scoring, Warren Corriveau Sr. led the men with a 577 series that featured games of 216 and 194, while Gray Montgomery had a 529 series with a 206 game, Duane Schillemat had a 525 series with a 198 game, and John Walker had a 514 series with a 197 game. Marty Adams had a 509 series and Skip Shine rolled a 195 game.
Carol Gloski had the women's high scratch series (492) and game (190). Dalzell had a 174 game.