Vermont
Free Press picks its top 10 Vermont sports stories of 2023
The time has come to do our annual accounting of the year that was in Vermont sports.
Just what caught our eye when we looked back at 2023?
From a University of Vermont basketball championship sweep on home court to emotional and impressive high school championship teams, boiling down a year’s worth of highlights is never an easy proposition, but here are our top stories from the past 12 months, in chronological order…
Becker leapfrogs Brennan as UVM’s all-time wins leader
Arriving in Burlington in 2006 as the director of basketball operations, John Becker took over the UVM men’s basketball team in 2011 and has marched the Catamounts to steady stream of March memories: Eight America East regular-season titles and five appearances in the NCAA Tournament. In January, the night belonged to Becker, who eclipsed former UVM coach and living legend Tom Brennan for most career wins in program history following a 74-64 victory over Bryant at Patrick Gym.
Becker is 289-118 overall and 162-30 in America East over 12-plus seasons at UVM.
‘He’s the GOAT’: Becker eclipses Brennan as Vermont silences Bryant in AE tilt
Feature: John Becker’s biggest wins of record tenure with UVM men’s basketball
Women coaches end drought in D-I girls basketball championship game
In early March, two women head coaches squared off in the Division I high school girls basketball championship game for the first time since 1990.
The leaders who ended that 33-year title drought are well-known: Ute Otley enter the final with five titles and nine championship appearances in 12 seasons at Champlain Valley; St. Johnsbury’s Jade Huntington is Vermont’s all-time leading scorer from her days at Oxbow in the 1980s.
In the 2023 final, Otley’s Redhawks pulled away in the third quarter for the program’s first outright championship since 2017.
Feature: Women coaches to meet in D-I girls basketball final for first time since 1990
Championship story: CVU girls basketball tops St. Johnsbury to end title drought
Vermont basketball teams sweep America East titles on home court
The University of Vermont women had a 13-year detour from title contention. But that changed in 2023 as the Catamounts romped through conference play with a 17-game win streak that concluded with the America East championship win against Albany.
UVM dispatched the Great Danes 38-36 to seize the conference championship in front of 2,502 at Patrick Gym in March.
The women’s triumph began the sweep as the men hosted UMass Lowell the following day. Vermont, the conference defending champions, stomped the River Hawks 72-59 to capture the America East title in front of 2,880 fans.
Championship story: UVM women’s basketball seals first America East championship since 2010
Championship story: Vermont men’s basketball pulls away for America East championship repeat
CVU boys claim first title in 100th D-I state final
Champlain Valley was the state’s top team for most, if not all, of the 2022-23 season. But they entered the 100th Division I boys basketball tournament having never won March’s last game.
Their opponent?
Second-seeded Rice, who was seeking a four-peat.
The Redhawks, behind heady play from their veterans, rallied in the third quarter to steal championship bragging rights from the Green Knights 42-38 at the University of Vermont’s Patrick Gym and brought home the first championship in program history.
The Redhawk girls also won the D-I tournament to cap a sweep for the Hinesburg school.
‘We had to prove it’: Top-seeded CVU claims first boys basketball title
New record set at Vermont City Marathon on blistering day
Maegan Krifchin’s blistering pace at the 2023 VCM was only matched by the spring heat. The temperatures soared throughout the day, but Krifchin’s official time of 2 hours, 33 minutes and 40 seconds bested Heidi Westerling’s 2009 race-record by nearly two minutes.
Krifchin gained on the record in the last six miles after passing Main Street for the second time.
Coverage: Course record shattered at the 2023 Vermont City Marathon & Relay
Bryson Richards tracks down VT Amateur on home course
On his home course at Country Club of Barre, Bryson Richards tracked down his second Vermont Amateur title in three years with a memorable closing performance.
After wiggling out of trouble with a tricky par-save to start the back nine, Richards drained three consecutive birdies to seal the 117th running of the statewide golf tournament. The University of Rhode Island standout posted 21 birdies and one eagle over 54 holes, finishing at 9-under for a five-stroke victory.
‘This is my home’: Richards rides par save, birdies to grab 117th Vermont Amateur at Barre
UVM fires men’s hockey coach Woodcroft following investigation
Former University of Vermont men’s hockey coach, Todd Woodcroft was fired in July following an investigation by UVM’s Office of Affirmative Action and Equal Opportunity that found “inappropriate text messages with a UVM student on multiple occasions that failed to maintain professional boundaries.”
Woodcroft was 20-55-9 across three seasons in Burlington. Assistant coach Steve Wiedler was named interim head coach for the 2023-24 season.
News: Todd Woodcroft fired as head coach of UVM men’s hockey after investigation
CVU girls XC squad races to perfect at state meet
Propelled by a pair of table-setters and a well-versed pack style approach, the CVU girls cross-country running team breezed through Vermont and regional competition this fall in one of the program’s best single-season performances.
Behind star runners Alice Kredell, the Vermont Division I individual champion, and Estella Laird, the Redhawks captured the state meet with a perfect score — finishing 1-2-3-4-5 — and won the New England crown for the seventh time, all since 2003.
Joining Kredell and Laird on CVU’s roster were: Audrey Neilson, Lydia Donahue, Charlotte Crum, Annalise Wood and Noe Jenni. CVU also finished the year ranked nationally in the DyeStat/RunnerSpace.com poll.
Perfect score! CVU girls fly to 19th XC running title in 21 years in dominant fashion
Profile: ‘The higher the stakes, the faster they run’: CVU girls XC team chasing big goals
Colchester girls soccer ends 30-year title drought
Emotions were high for the Colchester High School girls soccer team in 2023: Its longtime coach, Jeff Paul, lost his father, and a program supporter also died before the start of the fall campaign. The Lakers also had to contend with pressure and expectations, following three straight heartbreaking semifinal exits to extend their title drought to 30 years.
But Colchester overcame all of it with 17-2 record culminating in a 2-0 victory over Essex in the Division I championship tilt. Colchester wasted no time seizing control in the final, knocking in both goals by the game’s seventh minute.
Game story: After emotional year, Colchester girls soccer soars to first D-I title in 30 years
UVM men’s soccer goes on another NCAA Tournament run
The University of Vermont men’s soccer team has a knack for making November exciting. A year after reaching the NCAA tournament quarterfinals, the Catamounts made the Round of 16 before falling to No. 5 West Virginia 2-1 in Morgantown.
Vermont knocked off Rider at Virtue Field in the first round and then upset No. 12 Central Florida 3-2 on the road. This was the third straight year Vermont won at least 13 games.
Round of 16: West Virginia’s late winner sinks Vermont men’s soccer at NCAA Tournament
Other noteworthy stories of 2023
► UVM women’s hockey falls in semifinals by ‘fractions of an inch’: An extended officials’ video review in the final minute showed Vermont had missed the game-tying goal by ‘fractions of an inch.’ Instead of overtime, Vermont fell in the Hockey East semifinals for the second straight year following a record-tying 22-win winter.
► Spaulding girls hockey wins school’s first D-I crown since 2010: Behind Free Press’ Miss Hockey Rebecca McKelvey, the Crimson Tide went 21-0-1 for the program’s first Division I title and the school’s first D-I crown in any sport since 2010. In the final, Spaulding skated to a decisive, 4-1 victory over Burlington/Colchester.
► U-32 boys hockey stuns MMU for D-II title: The Raiders never led until Brenden Tedeschi’s short-handed, sudden-death goal 8:19 into double overtime to top Mount Mansfield 4-3 at Gutterson Fieldhouse in March. With two seconds left in regulation, Tae Rossmassler knotted the contest with goal off a MMU pad save. The championship was the longest Division II title game in the history of the tournament.
► CVU baseball caps school-year dominance: The Redhawks won a lot in the 2022-23 school year. … The football and basketball teams swept D-I tournaments for their breakthrough championships. And then baseball captured its third title in the last four seasons. With baseball’s triumph, CVU became just the second school to win all three D-I tournaments.
► Yates seals BFA’s perfect season with no-hit masterpiece: Sierra Yates was untouchable in the Division I softball championship game: The senior ace hurled a no-hit shutout with 15 strikeouts in the Comets’ 10-0 triumph to polish off an 18-0 record. It was also BFA’s 10th title overall.
► Vermonters pull off impressive, rare feat at New England track meet: For just third time in the 76-year history of the New England outdoor track and field championships, three Vermont boys placed in the same event. Essex’s Kelton Poirier captured the 800-meter run, to headline the 1-2-4 Green Mountain State finish, alongside runner-up Andrew Thornton of St. Johnsbury and Matthew Servin of CVU.
► St. Johnsbury rallies to first Little League baseball state title since 1985: It took St. Johnsbury Little League nine innings on a summer day in July, but that didn’t matter to the 10-to-12-year-old all-stars. Maddox Stacey delivered the go-ahead, three-run home run to seize the program’s first baseball title since 1985. Stacey then began the double play in bottom-half of the frame to seal St. Johnsbury’s celebration on Schifilliti Field.
► Berger leads Team USA: Champlain Valley’s Elise Berger went four innings, allowing just one hit in a 2-0 win against Mexico for Team USA women’s baseball in August. The triumph, the right-handed hurler’s second of the tournament, concluded Group A qualifying play for the United States (5-0) in the Women’s Baseball World Cup. Berger recently committed to Bard College to play baseball.
► Colchester’s Lefebvre returns to coaching ranks amid cancer battle: Only weeks after accepting the open position with Colchester field hockey and a return to coaching after a decade hiatus, Shawn Lefebvre learned she was diagnosed with breast cancer. The 1999 South Burlington High School graduate faced multiple rounds of chemotherapy and balanced family life and teaching responsibilities — all while leading the Lakers to the Division I semifinals and the program’s first winning season since 2018.
► Memorable day for three teams at football title-game tripleheader at Rutland: Rutland’s annual high school football championship tripleheader provided spectators with another year of fireworks. Burr and Burton held off Hartford’s furious comeback to capture the D-I crown. North Country secured a defensive stop with 41 seconds left for a championship banner, their first since 1997. And Windsor continued its dominance with a third straight championship.
► Middlebury College races to sixth straight NCAA field hockey championship: Middlebury field hockey is no stranger to championships. The Panthers (22-0) capped another undefeated season with a 2-0 championship-win over Johns Hopkins in November. The title was Middlebury’s sixth in a row. Audrey Lazar scored both goals.
Contact Alex Abrami at aabrami@freepressmedia.com. Follow him on Twitter: @aabrami5.
Contact Jacob Rousseau at JRousseau@gannett.com. Follow on Twitter: @ByJacobRousseau.
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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