Mike Glasder made his first trip to Harris Hill a memorable one on Sunday when he captured the 2011 Fred Harris Memorial Ski Jump Tournament.
The Chicago native won the Senior division with 239.5 total points. He had the longest jump of the day on his first try, 97 meters.
Austrian and 2009 champ Christian Reiter, who came in second, was the target jump winner with a not-for-competition mark of 98 meters. Reiter finished with 237 points. Fan favorite and three-time champ Vladimir Glyvka was ninth.
The two local jumpers in the event did well. Putney's Willy Graves was the top local finisher in the Senior division. He was fifth with 181.5 points, while Spencer Knickerbocker of Brattleboro was fifth in the Junior I division with 187 points.
Graves, who was on the U.S. Ski Team from 2006-2009, is helping Westminster College in Utah start up its ski jumping team. Knickerbocker has been accepted to the University of New Hampshire, but is planning to defer to pursue a career in Nordic combined, a event that mixes ski jumping with cross-country skiing.
Nina Lussi of Lake Placid, N.Y., was the top women's jumper with 179 points. There were six women in the event, an all-time high for Harris Hill.
Wind was a big problem all weekend, as gusts up to 35 mph threatened to cancel competition for Saturday's Pepsi Challenge, the warm-up event for Sunday's competition. Knickerbocker was fifth in that event Saturday with 185 points in the Junior I Division. Glasder and Reiter finished first and second, respectively, while Reiter had Saturday's longest jump, 97.5 meters.
Crowds were sparse on Saturday, but Harris Hill was packed on Sunday. All in all, it was a good weekend for ski jumping and another big step toward returning Brattleboro to its rightful spot as a Mecca for the sport.
Boys' basketball
• Brattleboro picked up two wins last week against Massachusetts opponents. The Colonels started out the week by grinding out a 64-53 home win against Monument Mountain on Feb. 14. Travis Elliott-Knaggs and Nate Forrett each scored 12 points and Tommy Heydinger added 11 points for the Colonels.
They followed that up with a 75-59 win in Northfield over Pioneer Regional. Travis Beeman-Nesbitt scored 18 and Tommy Heydinger had 21 as the Colonels improved to 13-3.
• Twin Valley used a 13-1 fourth quarter run to finish off Arlington and pull out a 42-39 road win on Feb. 14. Colin Lozito led the Wildcats with 14 points, while Troy Birch had 10 points and 14 rebounds.
Three-point shooting and great team defense were the keys to the Wildcats' 70-24 win over Black River last Friday. Ian Murdock sank 5 three-pointers on the way to a 21-point night, while Birch dominated inside with 27 points, 18 rebounds and 6 blocked shots. Twin Valley led 28-4 after one quarter, and cruised the rest of the way as they improved to a 7-7 record.
• Proctor is undefeated and the top team in Division III. The Leland & Gray Rebels gave them a scare on Feb. 14 in a 51-44 road loss. Noah Chapin and Josh Fontaine each had 11 points, but the Rebels could not overcome a 14-3 run in the first quarter by the Phantoms that left Leland & Gray playing catch up for the rest of the night.
The Rebels recovered with a 77-23 thrashing over West Rutland last Thursday. Matt Bizon had 21 points, 7 rebounds, 7 assists, and 5 steals. Fontaine added 10 points and 10 rebounds, while Chapin and Colin Nystrom chipped in 15 and 1o points, respectively.
• Bellows Falls lost to Mill River, 55-33, last Thursday. Peter Falzo and Joe Aslin each scored 7 points for the Terriers.
Girls' basketball
• Leland & Gray snapped a four-game losing streak with a 61-50 win over West Rutland on Senior Night on Feb. 15. Senior guard Aly Marcucci just missed a triple-double with 19 points, 10 assists, and 9 steals. Ashley Goddard added 11 points and Bethany Robinson and Callie Ginter both scored 10 points in the Rebels' last regular season home game.
The Rebels then faced a brutal stretch of three road games in three nights to end the regular season. Last Wednesday, they dropped a 63-26 decision to Green Mountain in Chester. Goddard had 10 points and 9 rebounds.
Victory No. 13 for the Rebels came last Thursday in Ludlow, with a 54-25 win over Black River. Alex Morrow had 16 points and 14 rebounds, while Ginter added 11 points.
The Rebels then lost the regular season finale last Friday at Arlington, 43-41, in overtime. Down by 11 and playing without Goddard at center, the Rebels rallied back to force OT. Robinson had 13 points, 12 rebounds and 4 steals, while Marcucci had 9 points and 9 rebounds. Now 13-7, the Rebels will likely be the No. 8 seed in the Division III playoffs.
• A good defensive game was undone by poor free throw shooting in Brattleboro's 52-41 overtime loss to Hartford on Feb. 15. The Colonels had 15 steals and led by 11 going into the final quarter, but Hartford outscored Brattleboro, 18-7, to tied it up at 39-all at the end of regulation.
In the final quarter, the Colonels went 3-for-10 from the free throw line, while the Hurricanes were a perfect 8-for-8. Hartford shut down the Colonels, 13-2, in overtime to win it. Taylor Kerylow led Brattleboro with 11 points and 5 steals; Mary Richardson added 8.
The Colonels traveled to Bennington last Friday and lost 60-32 to Mount Anthony. The Patriots hit 8 three-pointers and went 15-for-19 from the free throw line. The Colonels struggled to keep up after a solid opening quarter. Kelsey Patterson was Brattleboro's top scorer with 14 points as the Colonels fell to 4-14.
• Bellows Falls picked up their second win of the season with a 48-32 road win over Woodstock. Emily Dufault had 10 points and 12 rebounds as the Terriers improved to 2-16.
On Feb. 15, BF never recovered from a 26-4 first-half blitz by Fair Haven and the Terriers went on lose, 44-20.
• Green Mountain knocked off Twin Valley in overtime, 46-42, in Wilmington last Thursday and snapped the Wildcats' six game winning streak. Savannah Nesbitt and Sam Bernard led the Wildcats with 15 and 10 points, respectively.
Hockey
• The Brattleboro boys lost to Taconic, 4-3, last Wednesday - their eighth one-goal loss of the season. Nik Rancourt, Romello Lindsey and Adam Griffin all scored for the Colonels. The result was more decisive on Saturday, as Stowe beat the Colonels, 7-2. Jamie Martell got both goals for the 4-13-1 Colonels.
• The Brattleboro girls improved to 9-6-1 on Saturday as Emily Watson scored 5 goals and Maddie Rollins had 3 more as the Colonels blitzed North Country, 10-2, in Newport. Madison Doucette and Miranda Moseley also scored for the Colonels. Lou Lou Terwillger got her first varsity start in goal and played well to get her first win.
Nordic skiing
• It took until almost the end of the season, but Brattleboro finally got to host a ski meet last Wednesday at the VABEC course. Even then, the combination of icy conditions on the hilly part of the course and mushy conditions on the flats forced some adjustments to the 1.3-kilometer course for the Marble Valley League's Classic Championship.
Brattleboro's Halle Lange was the standout, winning the girls' race with a time of 18 minutes, 36 seconds. She led the Colonels to a second-place team finish behind Mount Anthony, 19-27. Two other Brattleboro girls placed in the top 10 as Maddi Shaw took sixth in 19:49 and Linnea Jahn finished eighth in 20:09.
Graham Glennon was the top Colonels finisher in the boys' event, clocking in at 16:46 for 10th place. He was the only Colonel in the top 10, as Brattleboro finished third behind Woodstock and Mount Anthony.
The last of the three-race MVL Championship series, the classic relay, is set for Feb. 23 as Prospect Mountain in Woodford.
Miscellany
• The Woodman Athletics Booster Club of Brattleboro, a nonprofit organization that supports Woodman's gymnasts in their various athletic endeavors, is having a raffle. First prize is a week at Camp Woodward in Pennsylvania, where the winner can choose between gymnastics, snowboarding, skiing, cheering, skateboarding, inline skating, BMX or digital media camps.
Tickets are $5, contact Daron or Priscilla Tansley at 802-387-5654 or 802-387-5654 for more information. The drawing will held on March 6 at the Hip Hop Classic meet at Woodman Athletics. Attendance is not required to win.
• The Connnecticut River Valley Baseball League will have an organizational meeting on March 2 at 6:30 p.m. at JD McLiments Pub in Putney. There are seven teams confirmed to play this season - Brattleboro River Rats, Chester Pirates, Claremont (N.H.) Cardinals, Ludlow Gold, Putney Fossils, Saxtons River Pirates, and Keene (N.H.) Black Dawgs - and Norwich, Vt., is considering joining the league.