Vermont
17 outstanding Vermont high school girls athletes who left their mark in 2023-24
With our annual features on the Vermont high school athletes of the year posted, now it’s time to give proper credit to other outstanding performances and accomplishments from the 2023-24 year.
After a full year of watching games and combing through our Burlington Free Press All-State teams and coaches’ all-league and all-state teams, here are a batch of girls standouts — 17 in all — who also caught our attention in the fall, winter and spring months.
‘Built different’: North Country star repeats as Free Press girls athlete of the year
Our endeavor with this feature is to recognize athletes who shine in multiple sports throughout the school year.
Enjoy!
STANDOUT GIRLS OF 2023-24 SCHOOL YEAR
Madison Barwood, Hartford High School
The junior made the BFP All-State second team at forward in field hockey, helping the Hurricanes roll to the Division II state title. She was also an BFP All-State honorable-mention selection at forward during the winter when Hartford claimed the program’s first hockey state championship. In the spring, Barwood surpassed 100 career goals in lacrosse and made the D-II coaches’ first team as a midfielder for a Hurricanes squad that went undefeated during the regular season.
Natalie Beauregard, U-32 High School
In the fall, the senior made second team for BFP All-State field hockey at forward. In the winter, Beauregard was a leading scorer for the Raiders’ basketball team. In the spring, she made D-II coaches’ first team on attack, keying U-32’s run to a second straight state title.
Elise Berger, Champlain Valley Union High School
The steady senior was instrumental in leading CVU girls basketball to the second of back-to-back D-I state titles. For her efforts, the 5-foot-11 point guard was named the Free Press’ Miss Basketball for the 2023-24 season. In the spring, Berger wrapped a two-year career playing varsity baseball at the Hinesburg powerhouse, earning All-Metro second-team honors as a pitcher. Berger will continue her baseball career at Bard College.
Sabrina Brunet, South Burlington High School
In field hockey, the senior switched from forward to midfield this past fall and guided the Wolves to their second D-I title in three seasons, to earn Free Press player of the year honors. In the winter, Brunet racked up 28 goals and 15 assists in hockey, to join the 100-point club, and help South Burlington advance to the D-I semifinals. She was named to the BFP All-State second team. In the spring, Brunet was a US Lacrosse Academic All-American and a D-I coaches’ first-team selection at midfield.
Brooke-Lynne Choiniere, St. Johnsbury Academy
The senior was an All-Metro first-team pick in soccer, mainly playing at center back before moving to central midfield later in the year. In the winter, Choiniere was a high-scoring forward for the Kingdom Blades who landed on the honorable-mention list for BFP All-State hockey. In the spring, Choiniere earned an outfield spot for All-Metro honorable mention.
Brooks DeShaw, Burlington High School
A determined forward with great skill, DeShaw scored 20 goals this fall to break Burlington soccer’s program record for career tallies with 58. The Middlebury College-bound DeShaw landed on first team for BFP All-State. In the winter, DeShaw was academic all-star who was a key forward on the Sealakers’ first championship in program history. And for lacrosse in the spring, DeShaw earned a spot on the D-I coaches’ second team as a midfielder.
Stella Dooley, Champlain Valley Union High School
The senior was one of the state’s best center backs in soccer for two years, making the BFP All-State first team for a Redhawks squad that went undefeated during the regular season. In the spring, Dooley was a US Lacrosse Academic All-American and D-I coaches’ first team pick at midfielder.
Tanner Drury, White River Valley School
At 5-foot-2, the senior Drury shined in three sports at White River Valley. In the fall, Drury was a D-III coaches’ first team defender. In the winter, Drury surpassed 1,000 career points and made the Southern Vermont League ‘C’ Division first team. And in the spring, Drury was a first-team pick for the SVL ‘C’ Division first team.
Isabel Greb, Proctor High School
The senior pulled off a rare feat this school year, reaching two impressive milestone figures with 100 career goals in soccer and 1,000 career points in basketball. In soccer, Greb made the BFP All-State second team as a forward. In basketball, Greb was an honorable-mention selection for BFP All-State. Then this spring for softball, Greb earned a spot on the SVL ‘D’ Division honorable-mention list.
Hannah Gubbins, Woodstock High School
The senior was a first-team selection for BFP All-State in field hockey and hockey. In the fall, she supplied 25 goals and 11 assists to make first team at forward. In the winter as a defenseman, Gubbins was Woodstock’s leading scorer (23 goals, six assists). And in the spring, Gubbins was a midfielder who made the D-II coaches’ first team.
Holley MacLellan, Milton High School
The box-to-box midfielder who tallied 21 goals and 16 assists, MacLellan made the BFP All-State first team in soccer, guiding the Yellowjackets to the D-II state title. In the winter, MacLellan made another first team for BFP All-State after collecting a team-high 37 goals in the Sealakers’ run to an historic state crown. Then in the spring, MacLellan was a first-team outfielder for the All-Lake squad.
Sidney Herrington, Arlington Memorial High School
Herrington was a coaches’ all-state midfielder who helped Arlington claim the D-IV soccer championship in the fall. For basketball, Herrington made first team for the SVL ‘D’ Division. And for track and field, Herrington claimed shot put and javelin at the D-IV state meet while running a leg on the victorious 4×400 relay squad for the Eagles.
Breya Montague, Essex High School
The senior was a BFP All-State second-team honoree for defense in the fall, helping Essex reach the program’s first D-I title game in 10 years. In the winter, Montague landed a spot on the honorable-mention list for BFP All-State basketball. And in the spring, Montague spearheaded the Hornets’ run to their first lacrosse title in program history. Montague, who surpassed 100 career goals in April, was also a US Lacrosse All-American and first-team pick for D-I coaches.
Nicole Norton, Colchester High School
The senior landed on the honorable-mention squad for BFP All-State in field hockey, helping the Lakers reach the D-I semifinals. In the winter, the shooting threat made honorable mention for BFP All-State in basketball. And in the spring, Norton was a first-team selection at third base for All-Metro softball.
Aurora Rella-Neill, Mount Anthony Union High School
The junior was an honorable-mention pick for BFP All-State in soccer. In the winter for Nordic skiing, Rella-Neill was a Southern Vermont League all-star selection. And in the spring for lacrosse, Rella-Neill was a first-team midfielder for D-I coaches.
Audrey Rupp, Windsor High School
The junior powered Windsor to an appearance in the D-III soccer title game with a 50-goal season, earning a spot as a second-team forward for BFP All-State. In the winter, Rupp made BFP All-State honorable mention for basketball as the Yellow Jackets played in their third straight final. And in the spring for Hartford, Rupp was a US Lacrosse Academic All-American who also landed on the D-II coaches’ first team as a midfielder.
Kate Tilgner, Stowe High School
An honorable-mention selection on defense for BFP All-State, Tilgner helped Stowe to a D-III soccer four-peat. In the winter for hockey, Tilgner was a Lake Division first-team forward and an academic all-star. And in the spring for tennis, Tilgner paired with teammate Gabby Doehla to win an unprecedented fourth straight doubles state championship. Tilgner also won at No. 4 singles in the team final for the Raiders’ fourth straight title.
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Contact Abrami at aabrami@freepressmedia.com. Follow him on Twitter: @aabrami5.
PORTLAND, N.Y. (WCAX) – Police say the suspect in a Vermont murder was arrested in New York on Wednesday.
Terrence Biggs Jr., 25, of Michigan, was wanted in the deadly shooting of Austin Rodriguez, 26, of Rutland. It happened at a home on Summer Street on April 22.
Investigators say state police in New York arrested Biggs during a traffic stop in Portland, New York, that is in western New York, early Wednesday morning.
Biggs is charged with second-degree murder.
We still don’t know what authorities think led to the shooting or what the connection was between the two men.
Copyright 2025 WCAX. All rights reserved.
This story by Tim Calabro was first published in The Herald on Sept. 11, 2025.
Phill Gatenby rolled over the Moxley Bridge in Chelsea with a plastic skeleton riding shotgun in his Jeep, having made the long drive from Brattleboro for an early morning visit. Just a year ago, the Manchester, England native — by way of Florida — had never laid eyes on a covered bridge. Now he’s smitten.
Gatenby recalled seeing a covered bridge while driving around and thinking, “Oh, that’s interesting. I’d never seen a covered bridge in my life before. Never really heard of them,” he said. “A couple days later, I was going to Townshend, and all of a sudden it’s the Dummerston Bridge, and I’m just like, different size, different shape, different color.”
He stopped for directions and as he got lost on the back roads, he saw more and more covered bridges.
What started as casual curiosity has evolved into a quest: visit and film all 100 of Vermont’s authentic, historic covered bridges and share the journey on YouTube in a series titled “Vermont’s 100 Covered Bridges.”
So far he’s been to 50 and cranked out 37 videos of his visits — one every Sunday.
The most recent set of episodes has focused on the covered bridges of Tunbridge, Chelsea, and Randolph.
No two are quite alike. From king and queen trusses to parallelogram-shaped spans built on bends, like some on the First Branch, Gatenby has come to appreciate their variety and character.
And, stepping back from the bridges, the entire scene fascinates Gatenby.
“I mentioned this in the Kingsbury Bridge [episode]. I was at the bridge and I looked, and you’ve got the green mountains in the background and rolling hills. Then you’ve got the farm with the — is it the corn towers? — the river and a covered bridge. And it just says, like, you can’t get more Vermont!”
Gatenby’s process is rigorous. Each episode takes hours to shoot and edit. He gets different angles — sometimes driving through a bridge three or four times for the right shot. He’s waded into rivers, climbed steep banks, and once filmed inside a long-retired bridge that had been turned into a town shed.
“I try and do something that’s consistent,” he says. “So it’s, you know, the same start, the same middle. I go in the river. I’ve been in every single river so far.”
Gatenby credits community access TV stations — first Okemo Valley TV in Ludlow and now Brattleboro Community TV — for helping him build his skills and loaning him equipment.
“They literally brilliantly sat down and five, six, seven weeks went through how you do it,” he recalled.
Gatenby’s episodes go out via Okemo Valley TV’s YouTube channel and have regular times on the Okemo Valley and Brattleboro TV stations.
Form, Function, History
Vermont once had more than 600 covered bridges, Gatenby noted, but flooding and age have winnowed down the number greatly. Now, 100 remain and many towns hold clusters of them.
Tunbridge, for example, boasts five (Flint, Larkin, Mill, Cilley and Howe), with the Moxley bridge just over the Chelsea line. Randolph has three (Kingsbury, Gifford, and Braley or Johnson), all of them along the Second Branch.
Gatenby pointed out that three of the First Branch bridges were built by the same person, Arthur Adams. That’s a phenomenon common to covered bridges, Gatenby noted. Oftentimes the same person who had the skills to build a bridge would become the area’s go-to expert.
As Gatenby visits each of the 100 covered bridges spread throughout the state, he points out the history and construction techniques used in each, particularly the suspension methods unique to covered bridges. Most covered bridges in the White River Valley make use of modified king trusses, posts fitted into a triangle, which provide strength to the structure. Some, like the Moxley bridge, use both king trusses and square queen trusses around them.
Vermont’s covered bridges aren’t just structural relics, though — they’re cultural icons.
Some have graced the silver screen, including the Kingsbury Bridge in Randolph, used by Alfred Hitchcock as scenery in his 1955 film “The Trouble with Harry.”
“North by Northwest” has its dramatic crop duster strafing Cary Grant, Gatenby jokes in one of his episodes before cutting to a humble, scenic shot featuring the South Randolph bridge. “Unfortunately, it wasn’t quite as glamorous as that!”
The Chiselville bridge in Sunderland — Gatenby’s favorite so far — featured in “Baby Boom,” Diane Keaton’s 1987 film, and a year later, in the 1988 Chevy Chase and Madolyun Smith Osborne comedy, the Upper Falls bridge in Weathersfield made for a memorable gag (“I wouldn’t go that way if I were you”).
Another memorable stop is East Corinth, where the prop bridge used in “Beetlejuice” was fabricated out of whole cloth for the two weeks of filming. “Thousands of people go there every year,” he said, noting that the set-piece, used now as a shed at a ski area, doesn’t count among the authentic and historic bridges he films.
Nor, he said, does the Quechee Bridge. Though it is often mistaken for a traditional covered bridge, it’s just a facade.
“It’s concrete and steel. There’s very little wood,” Gatenby said. “You see the wood on the outside and the roof.”
Traditional bridges are completely made from wood and use a variety of truss systems to strengthen the span.
Place and Purpose
Gatenby moved to Vermont from Florida in July of last year. He now lives in Brattleboro with his wife and works as a shift supervisor at a home for adults with mental health issues.
“I’m a trained youth worker in England,” he said, having spent years working for the Prince’s Trust, a charity founded by King Charles. His day job might be demanding, but the early hours leave room for exploration.
“Three o’clock to 11:30 at night, so the daytime allows me to spend time in the TV studio,” he says. That flexibility has enabled him to squeeze in long road trips, sometimes filming six or seven bridges in a single day. “I’ve got to do minimum six, seven bridges each trip now,” he added. “To make it worth it.”
This Sunday, the show’s 38th episode will be released.
“I’m doing a little special 50th episode,” he said, noting the halfway point in the 100-bridge journey. “That’s where I’m bringing in stuff like the Quechee bridge. Because people said, ‘Oh, you didn’t go to the Quechee.’”
As the series nears its midpoint, Gatenby’s audience is slowly growing, both online and in the communities he visits.
“It’s just amazing … you know, and I’m just visiting them all,” he said, “places that I wouldn’t have got to see otherwise.”
With 50 more bridges to go, Vermont’s covered bridge guy still has miles to travel and stories to uncover.Gatenby’s series of covered bridge videos can be watched on Okemo Valley and Brattleboro public television stations or found on YouTube.
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