Hannah Earns ECAC and All-New England Honors for Pentathalon in Indoor Track Season

Hannah Blackburn '17 is racking up the athletic honors here at MIDD in only her sophomore year.  After earning 2nd Team All-Conference this Fall for volleyball, she's now earned both All-ECAC, and All New England honors in Indoor Track and Field for the Pentathlon.  If I have this correct, the Pentathlon is the indoor version of the Heptathlon for outdoor Track.  The Pentathlon indoor events are:

60 metres hurdles

High jump

Shot put

Long jump

800 metres

and the Heptathlon events outside are:

• 100 metres hurdles
• High jump
• Shot put
• 200 metres
• Long jump
• Javelin throw
• 800 metres

Back in February, Hannah set a new school record for the Pentathlon, earning All-New England honors by taking 5th at the Division III New England's, where 30 teams competed. Two weeks later, she broke her own school record, taking 7th at the ECAC's where over 60 teams competed, earning her the All-ECAC honor. 

Hannah is now in Spring training for outdoor track, and will continue her prowess outside, switching now to the Heptathlon for the Outdoor Season.  We are all hoping that the snow and cold abate, allowing for an enjoyable Spring outdoor season!  Keep up the great work, Hannah.  Your MCVB family is proud of you!!

March in VT = Chili Fest, and Spring Skiing!

The Chili Fest has been around for a few years now, and it's a definite favorite Spring activity!  Main street gets blocked off and vendors from around the state set up tents and offer tastes of their chili.  When you buy a ticket, you get a spoon, and a poker chip so you can vote for your favorite chili.  (My vote went to The Lobby's chili--a restaurant on the riverfront here in Middlebury.)

What could be better than strolling down main street, eating chili and talking with your friends!?!  Lizzy shared her stack of cups--nice job, Lizzy.  I think others were around as well, but Lizzy, Gabi, Eliana and Becca are pictured here together, and I think Meg and her parents were around also, taking in the full experience of Chili Fest 2015.

On Sunday, Lois and I went skiing, and despite the relative "mild" weather for the Chili Fest on Saturday, the snow and wind were howling up on the mountain on Sunday!  Ahh, Spring in VT keeps you on your toes!

Gabby Interns at Smithsonian for J-Term

We missed Gabby over J-term, but she had a fantastic time doing her alternative January Term project!  She was an intern at the Smithsonian Museum, and told me that some of her favorite parts were seeing some of the behind the scenes parts of the museum.  Two of her favorites were the Muppets in storage, and the 1980 USA Olympic hockey stick signed by the team!  (That's a definite favorite given our team's obsession with the Miracle story!)  How FUN!!  We're glad to have you back, Gabby, but so happy that you had a fun experience.  Thanks for sharing!

Lauren Writes Great Article for "The Orchard"

Even though her name no longer appears on our roster, Lauren Alper '16,  will always be a member of our MCVB family.  Lizzy recently emailed me a link to a piece Lauren wrote that was published on the student run website called MiddBeat.  Lauren was unable to continue playing volleyball due to her health, which is the subject of the article.  We're so proud of Lauren and her resolve--skills undoubtedly learned in part on the volleyball court growing up in California.  Well done, Lo!

Lauren's Article

Cookie Baking Break During Finals

Christmas cookie baking time!  Last year I had the team out to my house to bake and decorate Christmas cookies, but this year, Hannah and Harrison were the only ones who had time.  we did it on the reading day, so I think most people were busy preparing (or cramming?) for their upcoming finals.  Lydia, Lois, Max and a friend also joined in the fun after school.

The young boys rolled out the second batch of dough, cut out more cookies, and ate quite a bit of raw dough.  (We all had to have just a little raw cookie dough, for old times sake!)  My girls, Hannah and Harrison decorated the cookies, all the while listening to Christmas music.


Hannah also brought out some great Cabot cheese that she'd received from her Track Coach and shared that with us, so we ate cheese and crackers while decorating (and eating) cookies.  What fun!

Then, Harrison got Lydia to do a duet on the piano--and this is when we learned that he was a Music major.  He's quite talented!  We also learned he has a flare for fictionalizing life stories, and has a great sense of humor!



Later this week, we ended up getting a nice winter storm, which meant two snow days for my kids, so I hope everyone traveling during this time got where they were going safely!  We ended up getting over a foot of wet, heavy snow, so we're lucky that we didn't lose power out at our house.





The picture below is of the adorable dove tree ornament that Sylvie made--thank you Brian and Sylvie--I love it, and it'll go on the tree just as soon as we actually get it!!

Good luck on Finals, safe travels to all, and have a wonderful Holiday!!

Banquet Concludes 2014 Season

We celebrated our Season with a final dinner at the Swift House Inn last night.  What a lovely place, and we want a special THANK YOU to go out to the Underbrinks and the Kolodkas for sponsoring this lovely event.  We'd never have a dinner like that without you, so we all really appreciate your generosity and thoughtfulness.

In a fashion typical of our team, we don't do a big, formal banquet celebration with speeches and presentations, but instead, just get together for a wonderful meal, and laughs and enjoy each other's company.  Pat Manley, our Faculty Affiliate, and Judd Mackey, our trainer joined us as they're both very important members of our team as well as the players and coaches.

We do have a few team awards that the team votes on, old-school Varsity Letters for the freshmen, and the official MIDD Certificate of Participation for everyone, so we hand those out so everyone has a token of appreciation for their efforts during the season.  I think Lizzy mentioned that she actually put her varsity M on a quilt or blanket, which is a great idea.  Then, I thank the captains for their special contributions.  I always recognize our seniors for FOUR wonderful years.  Every year I get them a navy fleece blanket with Middlebury and their # on it so as they cuddle up on their couch next year in whatever part of the country they end up in, they can reminisce about the "good ole days" playing MCVB!  It's a pretty quick award presentation, but hopefully a special one nonetheless.

The captains and team gave the "adults" a cool mug with the team picture on it, and some fun food items for Meg, in addition to a very special Picture Book for the coaches of a snapshot of the season, and a CD of the warm-up music.  THANK YOU for those nice gifts!!

Here are the results from our Team Awards:

Off-Court Contribution:  Kathryn Haderlein
On-Court Contribution:  Lizzy Reed
Most Improved:  Eliana Schaefer
Spirit Award:  Kathryn Haderlein (and Cowie)!

The Captains for 2015:  Kathryn, Katie, and Hannah

Congratulations to everyone, and thank you for a wonderful Season!!

Piper Competes in Senior Classic

Piper finished her senior career at MIDD by competing in the Senior Classic Event held at The University of Massachusetts at Boston yesterday.  Lizzy and Olivia were also honored by the nomination, but were unable to attend the actual event.  There were fun competitions and drills, and the event concluded with match play of a couple of sets.  I believe Piper's team won both sets, thanks in part to not only Piper's front row play, but she served (maybe for the first time in her career during a match??) and aced them on a short serve, and threw them off by mixing in deep serves--all that serve and chase paid off, huh, Piper!  :)

She represented NESCAC well as most other players in attendance were from other Conferences.  Way to go, Piper.  We also had a nice time on the drive just chatting, which was really fun.  After picking her up at 5:30 am, I dropped her off at 5pm so she'd have time to shower and change for our Banquet that night at 6pm, so it was a full day, especially hearing that she'd been in the lab until wee hours the previous night (or really that morning), and had been up at 5:00 am a couple other times that week babysitting for another coach!  (She left the Banquet and headed back to the lab to finish up more work on her cores for her Thesis, too.  LONG days right now for everyone...)

Good luck to everyone on their finals!