-While the Brattleboro Bears Nordic ski team will not win the Southern Vermont League (SVL) Championship this season, the Bears do have an individual championship to celebrate.
Brattleboro's Nico Conathan-Leach won the SVL boys' classic race on Feb. 4 on the Marlboro Nordic Ski Club's trails. He covered the course in 14 minutes, 30 seconds, just two seconds faster than runner-up James Underwood of Woodstock. Together with his fourth-place finished on Jan. 28, Conathan-Leach clinched the SVL boys' individual title.
Willow Sharma was not far behind his teammate with a fifth place finish in 15:58. Rounding out the Bears' scoring were Adam Solar (16th in 18:36) and Liam Conathan-Leach (18th in 19:22).
With three top-10 finishers, Woodstock won the boys' team event with 32 points. Brattleboro was a close second with 34 points, followed by Mount Anthony (38), Rutland (41), and Burr & Burton (74).
Heading into the final event of the SVL championships - the team relay race on Feb. 13 - Woodstock is in first place in the team scoring with 46 points, followed by Mount Anthony (69), Rutland (87), Brattleboro (92), and Burr & Burton (145).
Gymnastics
• The Brattleboro gymnastics team had its final home meet of the season on Feb. 8 at the Gibson-Aiken Center. It was a dual meet for the Bears with the team that has shared their space all season, the Burr & Burton Bulldogs, and the Bears came away with a 137-131.1 victory.
Brattleboro's Lauren Chute again was first in the all-round scoring. She finished with a 9.75 in Vault, a 9.4 in Bars, a 9.0 in Beam, and a 9.3 in Floor for a combined score of 37.45 points. Burr & Burton took the next two spots as Alex Bedard was second with 37.05 points and Mia Harrington was third with 35.3 points.
Brattleboro gymnasts Hailey Richards and Juliette Pals finished fourth and fifth, respectively. Richards had an 8.6 in Vault, an 8.1 in Bars, an 8.7 in Beam, and a 9.2 in Floor for combined score of 34.6 points, while Pals had an 8.3 in Vault, an 8.1 in Bars, a 9.0 in Beam, and an 8.3 in Floor for a total of 33.7 points.
Sylvia Moshovetis, who was honored before the start of the meet as Brattleboro's lone senior, finished seventh in the all-around with a score of 23.6 points.
Independent gymnast Amaya Arnold, who competes with the Bears, was eighth with an all-round score of 21.2 points.
Ice hockey
• The 11-4-1 Brattleboro boys are picking up steam as the Bears have won six games in a row and now are ranked No. 4 in Division II with four games left in the regular season.
On Feb. 5 in Burlington, the Bears reeled in the Seahorses, 8-2. Evan Wright had four goals and two assists to lead the Bears. Carter Mialkowski scored two goals, Rowan Lonergan had a goal and two assists, and Silas Golding also scored. Goaltender Senji Kimura had another strong game, making 24 saves.
The Bears continued their stretch of games away from home with a 3-2 victory over North Country in Newport on Feb. 8. Brattleboro completes its five-game road trip on Feb. 12 in Manchester with a 7 p.m. game against Burr & Burton.
• The 1-10 Brattleboro girls lost the only game they played last week, a 9-1 loss to Stowe on Feb. 8 at Withington Rink. Quinn Sheldon had three goals and an assist for Stowe, while teammates Jackie Henderson and Ali McLaughlin added two goals each. Jayden Denny scored the only goal for the Bears.
Boys' basketball
• Strong defense helped Brattleboro beat the Burr & Burton Bulldogs, 59-42, in Manchester on Feb. 4. The Bears held the Bulldogs to just one field goal in the first quarter and took a 13-7 lead. By halftime, the Bears led 29-16 and stayed in control throughout the second half.
Oscar Korson led the 5-10 Bears with 19 points. John Satterfield added 11 points and Hudson Smith scored 10 points.
• Ely White scored 26 points, including eight three-pointers, but it wasn't enough as the Leland & Gray Rebels lost to the West Rutland Golden Horde, 72-53, in Townshend on Feb. 4. The Horde, the top team in Division IV, were led by Peter Guay with 33 points.
The Rebels then defeated Rivendell, 46-37, on Feb. 8 to improve their record to 2-13.
• Bellows Falls defeated Mount Anthony, 59-52, on Feb. 4, but came up short against Otter Valley in a 56-42 loss on Feb. 8 in Brandon. The Otters led all the way, and a BF rally in the fourth quarter was too little, too late. Brody Lathrop led Otter Valley with 16 points, while Jaden Bazin was BF's top scorer with 11 points. The Terriers finished the week at 8-7.
• Twin Valley took care of Arlington, 66-37, on Feb. 8, to improve their record to 10-5. The Wildcats are currently ranked fifth in Division IV.
Girls basketball
• Brattleboro defeated Mount Anthony, 41-28, on Feb. 8 at the BUHS gym. The Bears ended the week with an 8-6 record and were ranked sixth in Division I.
• Springfield's Macie Stagner scored 25 points and, in the process, set the school record for career points as the Cosmos defeated the visiting Bellows Falls Terriers, 46-31, on Feb. 3. The Cosmos led the game from start to finish as they built up a 15-point lead by halftime. Olivia Hallock led 10-3 BF with 12 points.
• Twin Valley lost another close one with a 43-40 loss to visiting Mill River on Feb. 3. Alanna Bevilacqua led the 5-10 Wildcats with 13 points, 23 rebounds, and two blocked shots, while Kate Oyer had 11 points, seven rebounds, and three steals, and Aliyah Walked added 12 points and four rebounds.
• Leland & Gray is on a bit of a roll with three straight wins to improve their record to 6-9. The Rebels beat Sharon Academy, 43-25, on Feb. 3, and took care of Woodstock with a 46-21 victory on Feb. 7.
Glow Skate at Withington Rink
• The Brattleboro Recreation & Parks Department says that due to the Brattleboro Winter Carnival's annual Glow Skate, there will be no public skating at Withington Rink on Sunday, Feb. 16, from 1 to 2 p.m.
Winter Carnival will host Glow Skate on the 16th from 2 to 4 p.m. and 7 to 9 p.m. The admissions fee for this event is $5 per person. Skate rentals are available for $3. Season passes and fee entry coupons will not accepted during this event.
Spaghetti dinner fundraiser benefits BUHS boys' hockey
• The annual Brattleboro Union High School boys' hockey team spaghetti dinner fundraiser takes place on Tuesday, Feb. 18, from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Elks Lodge on Putney Road.
Tickets cost $10 for adults and $6 for children under 12. The Brattleboro boys' hockey players will be selling tickets in advance, and they can also be purchased at the door. Take out will also be available.
The servers at the event will be the Brattleboro boys' hockey team, and desserts will be provided by the hockey parents. There will also be a raffle taking place at the event. For more information, email [email protected].
NECCA featured in Super Bowl ad for Google Workspace
• People watch the Super Bowl each year as much for the commercials as for the football. However, this year there was a Brattleboro connection to one of the ads.
The New England Center for Circus Arts in Brattleboro (NECCA) was part of an ad campaign for Google Workspace with Gemini. They ran 50 commercials profiling 50 small businesses using AI to enhance their work - one from every state - and NECCA was chosen from Vermont.
According to a news release, Google's marketing department found NECCA through a casting director who was friends of NECCA coach Rebecca Starr.
"Fast-forward through a dizzying process of selection, interviews, and Google spreadsheet planning, and NECCA was chosen for the first location of all 50 states. Multiple camera and sound crews showed up one early November morning to support the director along with a whole team from Google keeping an eye on their first project in an intense single day of filming."
NECCA founder Serenity Smith Forchion said the ad shoot at their trapezium. "was quite daunting. In between getting shots of us coaching, we'd go into the office and the Google team would show us nifty ways the Gemini AI could help us edit communications and sort schedules, because they realized we are administrators as well as coaches!"
Forchion's twin sister and co-founder Elsie Smith added, "We had over 80 students involved, from our youth and adult recreational students to our ProTrack to our Silver Circus 60+. They all embraced having a camera nearby and just carried on sharing their fun with the world!"
If you missed it, the NECCA-centered commercial can be seen on YouTube at the "50 States 50 Stories" site at goo.gle/4gdkzTy#48.
Senior bowling roundup
• Bad weather on Feb. 6 forced the postponement of Week 6 of the winter/spring season of the Brattleboro Senior Bowling League at Brattleboro Bowl. They'll be back in action, weather permitting, on Feb. 13.
Randolph T. Holhut, deputy editor of this newspaper, has written this column since 2010 and has covered sports in Windham County since the 1980s. Readers can send him sports information at [email protected].
This Sports column by Randolph T. Holhut was written for The Commons.