Macpherson, Goewey Earn Athlete of the Week Honors
The groundhog may have predicted more winter, but a sure sign that spring is in the air is that high school sports are moving into the post-season.
This week's iBerkshires.com/Southwestern Vermont Health Care Athletes of the Week are moving in the right direction.
After wrapping up the Mount Greylock wrestling program's first individual Western Massachusetts Division 3 Championship since 2017, Aiden Macpherson had no trouble summing up what the victory meant.
"I get to go to states for the first time," Macpherson said after claiming the 170-pound sectional title. "I've been there before, but I've never wrestled there. It's going to be fun.
Like most area wrestlers, Macpherson missed the 2021 season entirely due to the pandemic. Coming into this winter, he was not sure where he would stack up against the best in the 413.
"As it got further into the season and started getting better, I sort of thought that I could if I really wanted to," he said. "It definitely wasn't easy."
He entered Saturday's sectional with the No. 2 seed and a bye through the quarter-finals. In the semis, he pinned Smith Vocational's Nicholas Gauger late in the first round and then went the distance with top-seeded Ben West of Taconic, prevailing, 17-7.
Macpherson, who attends McCann Tech and wrestles in the co-op program at Mount Greylock, will have plenty of company making the trip from the Berkshires to Fitchburg's Game On Sports Center on Friday morning. The county's four programs were well represented in the podium on Saturday at Wahconah High, including two of Macpherson's teammates, who qualified for states with third-place finishes.
Emma Goewey and the Mount Everett girls basketball team has some work to do to get to their state tournament, but you have to like their trend line.
Mount Everett was ranked 34th when the most recent Division 5 girls basketball rankings were released on Thursday by the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association -- just outside the 32-team cut for the state tourney.
But since those rankings were done, the Eagles won games on Thursday night and Friday night to run their record to 6-10.
Their week started with a come-from-behind, overtime win over Lenox to start their current three-game winning streak.
Goewey scored 23 points in that game and finished in double figures in the next two, maintaining her team-leading scoring average with 13.5 points per game.
The Eagles finish the regular season this week by hosting Drury and visiting Renaissance, a team Mount Everett beat, 40-18, in their first meeting. Then, they hope, it's on to the Western Mass regional tournament, where they can improve their resume for the potential state tourney bid.
The iBerkshires.com Athlete of the Week is sponsored by Southwestern Vermont Health Care.