Hinkell, Hoey Earn Athlete of Week Honors

It has been a spring season marred by winter weather, and most teams have more games rescheduled than actually played.

 

But this week's iBerkshires.com/Southwestern Vermont Medical Center Athletes of the Week beat Mother Nature and the competition to get off to a hot start in this cold April.

 

Drury sophomore Connor Hinkell has a 2-0 record on the mound for the 2-1 Blue Devils baseball team.

 

He has allowed just one run in 16 innnings of work for a miniscule .44 earned run average and has struck out 35 batters for an average of 2.2 strikeouts per inning.

 

At the plate, he also has a pair of hits an RBI for Drury, which has a busy vacation week with three games on the schedule, starting Monday at Taconic.

 

Mount Greylock junior Chase Hoey got a jump on the track and field season by setting a school and Berkshire County record in the high jump at Monument Mountain on Tuesday.

 

Hoey cleared 5 feet, 6 inches to take first in the event, edging reigning Division 6 State Champion Lily Haskins-Vaughan of the host Spartans.

 

Haskins-Vaughan won the event last spring at Westfield State with a jump of 5-4, the same height she cleared on Tuesday.

 

Coincidentally, 5-6 was also the winning mark at last spring's Massachusetts High School Meet of Champions at Fitchburg State.

 

Hoey Tuesday also won the triple jump (32 feet, 3 inches) and placed second in the long jump (14-0) and 100-meter hurdles (16.93 seconds).

 

Mount Greylock Saturday is scheduled to go to New York's Capital District for the Niskayuna Spring Classic.

 

The iBerkshires.com Athlete of the Week is sponsored by Southwestern Vermont Health Care.