Wahconah's Padelford, Lee's Lynch Recognized
With two weeks left in the high school regular season, this week’s iBerkshires.com/Southwestern Vermont Health Care Athletes of the Week are leading their teams into prime position to do some damage.
Post-season success is nothing new to the Wahconah boys lacrosse program, which won a state championship two years ago and went to the state quarter-finals a year ago.
The latest MIAA in-season power-rankings have Wahconah favored to go at least that far in Division 4. It checks in as the No. 8-ranked team in the commonwealth.
Wahconah ended last week on a five-game winning streak to improve to 9-3, and senior Rylan Padelford is a big reason why.
Earlier this season, Padelford set Wahconah’s school record for points.
And this year, he leads his team in both goals (42) and points (57). He is averaging 4.2 goals per game.
Wahconah starts a busy week this week at home against East Longmeadow, currently the 13th-ranked team in Division 3 in the state.
The Lee softball team is ranked third in the state in Division 5 in the most recent state rankings.
The Wildcats ended the week on a five-game winning streak, and Bri Lynch is the biggest reason why.
Lynch pitched four straight shutouts to start the streak, including a 2-0 win at Amehrst (three hits allowed) and a 1-0 win over St. Mary’s of Westfield (two hits allowed).
On Saturday, she moved from first base to the pitching circle after Mount Everett scored four first-inning runs and proceeded to hold the Eagles scoreless on four hits over the next six innings in a 5-4 win.
For the season Lynch has a 1.47 earned run average and is striking out more than two hitters per inning pitched.
At the plate, she leads Lee with a .651 batting average, and she’s come up big in some of the biggest moments. She went 3-for-4 with an RBI in the 2-0 win over Amherst, 2-for-3 against St. Mary’s and 2-for-3 with the game-winning RBI single in the bottom of the sixth against Mount Everett.
Lee, which already is in the D5 state tournament, looks to improve its 10-2 record on Monday when heavy-hitting Mount Greylock visits.
The iBerkshiers.com Athlete of the Week is sponsored by Southwestern Vermont Health Care.