Thursday, May 08

Spring sports covered the full range over the weekend, although weather conditions included a few snowflakes.

Still, traditional running races and a major bike race were held at points between Bennington in Vermont and Dalton in the Bay State. And there will be something going on virtually every week through summer and into late autumn.

Last week also saw the last ski area, Jay Peak, up near the Canadian border, finally shut down its lifts, leaving skiers and borders to climb Mount Washington to tackle the historic Tuckerman's Ravine, or head for Whistler/Blackcomb in British Columbia, the site of the 2010 Winter Olympics, or Mount Hood in Oregon.

It will be work, not play, at many Eastern winter sports centers where they are rushing for Memorial Day openings of their summer attractions.

On Sunday, the 31st annual Zem/Bennington Road Race saw contestants ranging from near kindergarten age to 91-year-old Bob Matteson, who was last seen at the Penn Relays in Philadelphia, where he turned in the fastest time in 10 years to win the 75-and-over age bracket in the 100-meter event.

The race honors the late Steve Zemianek, the longtime track coach at Mt. Anthony Union High

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School, who died in 2000 at the age of 59. He had started the event some 20 years earlier.

Winners of some of the Zemianek races included Al Boulet and Tim VanOrden, both coached in high school by the honoree; Kathy Zemianek, his daughter; and Kathleen Newton. Nine-year-old Allie Boudreau and Emmaline Gabriel were winners in the 3.8-mile race, along with Matteson. Some 250 people participated.

Joyce E. LeClair of North Adams was only 15 when she died in 2001. Her childhood friend, Allyson Holmes, started the LeClair Memorial Scholarship Race the next year at the Clarksburg State Forest. Allyson now lives in Boston, so her father, Jim Holmes, carries on the tradition, with the seventh annual race also held Sunday. More than $50,000 has been raised for Drury and McCann high school graduates, as well as for research to combat meningitis, the disease that took the young girl's life.

The LeClair Memorial was won by Alex Schueckler, who is on the Drury track team, and who will enter the U.S. Naval Academy this fall. Women's winner was Amanda Chilson, who graduated from Drury in 2000.

Sunday saw yet another race. The Dalton Community Recreation Association May Day Race was started 31 years ago and raises funds for its various programs. Like the Zemianek Race, there were courses of varying lengths up to 10 kilometers.

Dalton winners included Michelle Kroboth of Pittsfield. Some 150 children and 100 adults participated, CRA fitness instructor Tammy St. John reported.

Pittsfield High School graduate Shaun Thornton was 22 and had been in national bike races and programs when he died after a motorcycle accident in 1993. The Thornton Memorial Jiminy Peak Road Race has been held for 25 years. Saturday's bad weather held the number of competitors to only 654. Races of up to 150 kilometers were held on a course starting at Jiminy and going north on Route 43 to South Williamstown before turning south on Route 7 to Brodie Mountain Road.

Winner of the longest race was Toby Marzot, a Dartmouth student, in the time of 3 hours, 46 minutes and 42 seconds.

The race was organized by the Berkshire Cycling Association, headed by Bruce Townend of Windsor, who finished fourth in the 55-and-over division. Chris Fisher of the Williams College Cycling Club won the 35-and-over division. Women's winner was Sue Schlatter of New York.

While the weather was fitful, the participants and organizers in all the races were pleased to see green leaves replace the snowflakes of the past six months.