image description

Garceau Earns All-America Honors at UMass Boston

iBerkshires.com SportsPrint Story | Email Story
Wahconah Regional High School graduate and UMass Boston sophomore Aryianna Garceau earned all-America honors in the 100-meter hurdles at May's NCAA Division III Championships.
 
Garceau took sixth in the finals with a time of 14.05 seconds after qualifying for the finals with a time of 13.97, which broke a 35-year school record.
 
In earning all-America honors, Garceau became the 20th Beacon to achieve that honor and the first since 2018.
 
Earlier in May, Garceau was named to the U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Association's all-Region team. Garceau was second in the 100 hurdles at the Division III New England Championships and helped UMass Boston to a third-place showing at the Little East Conference Outdoor Championships.
 
On the lacrosse field, Mount Greylock grad Brooke Phelps wrapped up her senior season with 17 starts for the Framingham State Rams, who went 14-4 and lost, 11-6, to Westfield State in the MASCAC Championship title game.
 
That Westfield State team included junior goalie Sydney Smith (Wahconah), who started nine games and played in 15. She compiled a 42.2 save percentage and a 12.22 goals against average for a team that went 12-8, including a first round loss in the NCAA Division III Championship.
 
Mount Greylock's Sarah Polumbo, in her first year at Wesleyan University, played five games this spring for the Cardinals, who went 16-4 and made it to the second round of the NCAA tournament.
 
Another former Mountie, Ainsley Abel, played seven games for Williams in her first year, helping the team go 7-7.
 
Pittsfield's Madison Lodowski, who attended the Darrow School, recently finished her sophomore season at Elmira College. She appeared in four games and threw 5 and two-third innings for the Soaring Eagles, who went 15-19.
 
Closer to home at Troy, N.Y.'s, Rensselaer Polytechnic, Mount Greylock graduate Emma Newberry batted .267 in her first year with the Engineers. She played in 18 games and had three doubles and five RBIs as RPI went 34-7-1 with a trip to the NCAA DIII tournament.
 
The Division I baseball national tournament included several players who got their start in the Berkshires.
 
Jayder Raifstanger (Monument Mountain) and the St. John's Red Storm went 1-2 at their NCAA Regional in Charlottesville, Va. Raifstanger played in 16 games and started seven this spring, batting .259 with a double and a home run in his first season for the Big East Champions.
 
The Red Storm's NCAA tournament win came at the expense of the University of Pennsylvania and first-year Nick Guachione (Taconic). Guachione played in 10 games, starting six, for the Quakers, compiling a .304 on-base percentage and successfully stealing a base in his one attempt.
 
Penn won an Ivy League title, beating Anton Lazits (Taconic) and Columbia along the way. Lazits was named second-team all-Ivy after hitting .289 with 11 home runs and 38 RBIs for the Lions (26-18).
 
Evan Blake (Taconic) and Bryant University went to the NCAA tourney and went 36-21 in Blake's first season with the program. He played in 18 games with eight starts and had a double, a home run and five RBIs while hitting .147 for the Bulldogs.
 
Bryant, incidentally, reached the national championship with a 4-1 win over the University of Maryland-Baltimore County in the America East tournament final. UMBC sophomore Derek Paris (Mount Greylock) went 1-for-3 at the plate and scored the Retrievers' run in that loss. For the season, Paris earned Academic All-District recognition with a 3.8 grade-point average in computer science. Paris batted .239 with six doubles and 18 RBIs, playing 48 games behind the plate.
 
Speaking of academic honors, Pittsfield High graduate and Westfield State senior Ryan Lapierre was named to the all-Academic District team. Lapierre was the MASCAC Pitcher of the Year after going 9-0 with a league-best earned run average of 1.63. He struck out 72 in 66 and one-third innings of work. He was named Westfield State's Male Athlete of the Year and was selected to the D3baseball.com and ABCA/Rawlings all-Region team.
 
At Springfield College, Joe Traversa (Pittsfield) was named to the CSC Academic all-District team after hitting .209 with a pair of home runs and 16 RBIs for the Pride, which finished 16-21.
 
Cam Sime (Pittsfield) was named to the America East all-Rookie Team for UMass Lowell this spring. Sime went 1-0 in 11 appearances with a 4.67 earned run average for the River Hawks.
If you would like to contribute information on this article, contact us at info@iberkshires.com.

Dalton Residents Eliminate Bittersweet at the Dalton CRA

DALTON, Mass. — Those passing by the house at Mill + Main, formally known as the Kittredge House, in Dalton may have noticed the rim of woods surrounding the property have undergone a facelift. 
 
Two concerned Dalton residents, Tom Irwin and Robert Collins set out to make a change. Through over 40 hours of effort, they cleared 5 large trailers of bittersweet and grapevine vines and roots, fallen trees and branches and cut down many small trees damaged by the vines.
 
"The Oriental Bittersweet was really taking over the area in front of our Mill + Main building," said Eric Payson, director of facilities for the CRA. "While it started as a barrier, mixing in with other planted vegetation for our events help on the lawn, it quickly got out of hand and started strangling some nice hardwoods."
 
Bittersweet, which birds spread unknowingly, strangles trees, and also grows over and smothers ground level bushes and plants. According to forester and environmental and landscaping consultant Robert Collins, oriental bittersweet has grown to such a problem that the Massachusetts Department of Fish and Wildlife Management has adopted a policy of applying herbicide to bittersweet growing in their wildlife management areas.
 
Collins and Irwin also chipped a large pile of cut trees and brush as well as discarded branches. 
 
"We are very grateful to be in a community where volunteers, such as Tom and Robert, are willing to roll up their sleeves and help out," said CRA Executive Director Alison Peters.
 
Many areas in Dalton, including backyards, need the same attention to avoid this invasive plant killing trees. Irwin and Colins urge residents to look carefully at their trees for a vine wrapped often in a corkscrew fashion around branches or a mat of vines growing over a bush that has clusters of orange and red berries in the Fall. To remove them pull the roots as well.
 
View Full Story

More Dalton Stories