Summer Sports
by Edd Merritt

Baseball and swimming top the
summer ledger.

Although they call themselves the Burlington Tennis Club (BTC), they seem more at home in the water than on the court. The BTC swimmers have been winning steadily all summer, from dual meets such as mid-July victories over Vergennes and Middlebury to their recent first-place finish at the Champlain Valley Swim League Championships held at the St. Albans City Pool. BTC topped eight other clubs to win the championship. They then went to the St. Michael’s College pool to win the cahmpionship. Charlotte’s Evie Mitchell has played a major role in the 14-year-and-under class. At the league races she won the 50-meter breaststroke and was a member of the winning 200-meter freestyle and medley relay teams. To complete her weekend, she finished second in the 50-meter freestyle and third in the 100-meter individual medley.

Babe Ruth league state champs
After dispatching Barre-Montpelier by a score of 7-2, the Suburban Babe Ruth baseball team captured the state 14-year-old title, knocking off Brattleboro 13-7 at Winooski’s Hawthorn Field. Konnor Fleming engineered much of the Suburban, offense rapping out three hits, including a triple, that brought home four of the winner’s runs.
Shelburne’s Will Conroy and John Keen aided him in his efforts.

Local Legionnaires fail to make the title game in the Northern District
The S.D. Ireland American Legion baseball team lost its chance for a top placement in the Northern District tournament, as it dropped a one-run squeaker to first-ranked Colchester on Ireland’s home field at CVU. Seeded number two, they did move on to Middlebury College for the double-elimination northern tourney but lost their first game to third-ranked Addison County, 10-2. Staring elimination in the face, Ireland needed to win twice on Saturday in order to reach the finals. Up against Colchester again, the Cannons eliminated them by a 7-1 margin. Charlotter and recent CVU graduate Pat Ittleman played a staunch defensive outfield for Ireland as well as reliably producing RBIs throughout the season.

CVU contributes to Twin-State soccer win.
CVU veterans Tyler McNee and Micah Rose proved once again that on a team sport such as soccer, it is not always where you are, but rather where you will be. The two Redhawk grads played as though they instinctively knew the other would be on the end of a pass as Vermont’s men blanked New Hampshire 3-0 in the annual Twin-State soccer cup at Franklin Pierce College in Rindge, New Hampshire. The Swarthmore College-bound Rose scored one of the Green Mountain’s two first-half goals on a through ball from McNee who heads down the road to Middlebury in the fall.

Jay hosts Ultimate XC Marathon and Half Marathon
Charlotte was well represented at the Jay Ultimate XC Marathon and Half Marathon on July 26. The marathon is 33 miles long and the half marathon is 19 miles and is more of an adventure race because of the challenging terrain. The course is trails of various qualities ranging from dirt roads, ATV trails, logging trails to deer paths. It also has 4-5 miles of running in a river including going through two six feet tall culverts this year. With a week of rain before the race the river was a little deeper, the trails were slippery and the mud was shoe sucking deep.
Half marathon finishers include Cayenne MacKillop in 4:18:58 finishing 38th out of 125 and placing sixth in the Female Open division and Nicole Gorman in 4:47:11 finishing 58th overall and placing twelfth in the Open division. Marathon finishers include Kelly Wilson finishing 62nd overall out of 218 finishers and was first female master in a time of 7:16:43. Bill Kellner finished in 7:53:54 and placed 104th overall.