Pittsfield's Devine, Monument Mountain's Stover Recognized

The margins of victory were tiny, but the accomplishments were huge for this week's iBerkshires.com Athletes of the Week.

 

Monument Mountain's Kitson Stover and the Berkshire County Alpine League packed two weeks of racing into one evening on Monday at Bousquet.

 

Stover had a night to remember with a pair of giant slalom wins.

 

In the first race, he hit the line in 32.58 seconds to edge Pittsfield High's Charlie Heimann by .10 seconds.

 

In the nightcap, Stover was a little bit faster, finishing in 32.42 to edge Wahconah's Alex Sternerup by .14 seconds.

 

His wins helped the Spartan boys stay in contention for a league title this winter.

 

After the Feb. 13 finale at Bousquet, the county's downhill racers will turn their attention to the State Championshps on Feb. 28 at Berkshire East, where Stover will be looking to move up from last year's 24th-place slalom finish at Wachusett.

 

The county's high school swimmers already are in post-season mode -- the ones who have been fast enough to earn cut times for next week's sectional meet at Springfield College.

 

Some, like Pittsfield senior Kiera Devine, already have a qualifying time for the state meet at MIT one week later.

 

At Saturday's Berkshire County Individuals meet, Devine beat her seed time in the 500-yard freestyle by more than six seconds and, more importantly, made her qualifying time for the state meet.

 

She needed a time of 5 minutes, 41.41 seconds or better and touched the wall at Hudson (N.Y.) High school in 5:38.32.

 

That time also gave her first place in the event at the league finale by .04 seconds and her second win of the afternoon. Earlier, Devine earned a win in the 200 freestyle, where she also has qualified for the Central/Western Mass meet.