Common Bond for Athletes of the Week Cruz, Duhamel

Pins. It is all about pins for this week's iBerkshires.com Athletes of the Week. One honoree racks them up, while the other one knocks them down.

 

And in return, we pin our weekly honors on Mount Everett's Diego Cruz and Taconic's Mya Duhamel.

 

Cruz needed about 5-1/2 minutes total to cruise to five wins this week for the Eagles.

 

Midweek, Cruz earned a first-period pin in a dual match against Taconic.

 

Then on Saturday, he dominated the 106-pound weight class at the Taconic Invitational by earning four more pins and a tournament title, helping Mount Everrett place third out of 14 teams.

 

That's the fourth tourney crown for Cruz in four tries this season.

 

He started the season with a victory at the Holyoke Tournament and then added gold medals at the Berkshire Holiday Tournament and Antoch Memorial in Rhode Island before winning on Saturday.

 

The Eagles' sophomore is 16-0 this winter as he follows up on last winter's Western Mass Championship campaign.

 

Duhamel helped lead the Taconic bowling team to a county team championship before winning an individual state title last winter.

 

This year, she and the Thunder are in the thick of a three-way battle for first place atop the Berkshire County League standings.

 

Taconic is in third place, just two points behind first-place Pittsfield with a head-to-head showdown looming on Jan. 27 at Cove Lanes in Great Barrington. In between is Lee, which already owns a 2-1 win over Taconic.

 

Finishing in the top two of the 10-team league is a big deal. The top two teams get byes in the first round of the six-team County Championships on Feb. 10.

 

Duhamel last week rolled a 205 game that was the best among the girls in the weekly competition at Greylock Bowl and Golf, where Taconic kept pace with the leaders by picking up a 3-0 team win.

 

This winter, she owns the league's top game (236) and top two-game series (423) among the girls. And her 188 average leads all girls in the league.