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Carlos Ames receives congratulations from his Bates College men's squash teammates.

Mount Greylock Grad Recognized on Senior Day at Bates College

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Carlos Ames receives congratulations from his Bates College men's squash teammates.
Bates College senior Carlos Ames of Williamstown earned a pair of wins on Saturday as the 19th-ranked Bobcats men’s squash team celebrated Senior Day with wins over Hobart and Hamilton.
 
The Mount Greylock senior, playing at No. 8, defeated Hamilton’s Atticus Jones, 11-6, 8-11, 11-8, 11-4. Then Ames moved to No. 9 on the ladder to beat Hobart’s Matthew Frantz, 11-7, 11-6, 12-14, 11-8.
 
Earlier this winter, Ames and the Bobcats came to Williamstown to face Williams College, and he earned a five-set win over the Ephs’ Andrew Litvin to help Bates win, 8-1.
 
Mount Greylock grad Benni McComish is a freshman at Bates this winter.
 
December saw Drew University junior fencer Pearl Sutter (Mount Greylock) go 8-3 at the LIU Post Invitational, helping the Rangers go 5-0 at the event.
 
Taconic High graduate Dom Nda got his indoor track and field season started on the right foot on Saturday when he won the 60 meters at the Tufts University Invitational. The UMass Boston junior won his prelim in 7.06 seconds and shaved a fraction off that mark with a time of 7.02 in the final.
 
Also at the Tufts meet, Bridgewater State’s Michael Kotleski (Monument Mountain) placed fourth in the 400 dash in 53 seconds flat and ran a leg on BSU’s second-place 4-by-400 relay, which clocked a time of 3:30.14 to finish just behind Tufts (3:28.08).
 
Taconic graduate and Worcester Polytechnic Institute sophomore Matt Rabasco placed fifth in the 5,000 meters at Saturday’s Bowdoin Indoor Invitational. Rabasco finished in 16:14.32.
 
In December, Hartford junior Heather Hassett of Monument Mountain finished ninth in a 28-runner field in the 800 meters at the Yale Season Opener. Hassett clocked a time of 2:22.72.
 
At the same meet, Wahconah grade Jaclyn Farrell placed 11th in the triple jump (33 feet,  3-¾ inches) for Westfield State; Farrell also placed 18th in the long jump (14-9-¼). 
 
On the basketball court, St. Joseph grad Taverick “Tank” Roberson once again is leading the Pine Manor men’s basketball team this winter with 19.5 points per game. He is averaging 34 minutes per game and shooting 44 percent from the field for a team that started the year 9-5.
 
At Springfield College, senior Danielle Racette is averaging a team-best 3.3 assists per game and playing 21.4 minutes per game for the 11-4 Pride. On Saturday, she had five assists against one turnover in a 74-61 win over Emerson College. Springfield travels to Worcester Polytechnic on Wednesday before playing a non-league game at MCLA on Saturday afternoon.
 
Pittsfield High graduate and Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts senior Courtney McLaughlin is second on the TrailBlazers with 13 points per game and is shooting a team-best 42.9 percent from the floor. MCLA is off to a 6-8 start this winter. Hoosac Valley graduate Mckenzie Robinson is averaging 1.5 assists per game in 18.5 minutes per night.
 
The MCLA men continue to be led by a trio of Berkshire County graduates: juniors Joe Wiggins, Keiland Cross and Nolan Bird. St. Joe grad Wiggins is averaging a team-best 16.9 points per game. Cross of Pittsfield High averages 15.9 ppg, and Bird (Drury) is scoring 8.4 points per game. Wahconah grad Collin Parrott, an MCLA sophomore, is playing 32 minutes per game and scoring 7.4 points with 3.0 assists per night, and freshman Dahandry Sistrunk (Hoosac Valley) is averaging 7.6 minutes per game for the Trailblazers, who are 2-12 going into Wednesday’s MASCAC game at Fitchburg State.
 
On Monday, Cross was named the MASCAC's Rookie of the Week for the fifth time this season.
 
If you know a local high school graduate who should be featured in an upcoming edition of College Collage, please email sports@iBerkshires.com.
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Mount Greylock School Committee Votes Slight Increase to Proposed Assessments

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Mount Greylock Regional School Committee on Thursday voted unanimously to slightly increase the assessment to the district's member towns from the figures in the draft budget presented by the administration.
 
The School Committee opted to lower the use of Mount Greylock's reserve account by $70,000 and, instead, increase by that amount the share of the fiscal year 2025 operating budget shared proportionally by Lanesborough and Williamstown taxpayers.
 
The budget prepared by the administration and presented to the School Committee at its annual public hearing on Thursday included $665,000 from the district's Excess and Deficiency account, the equivalent of a municipal free cash balance, an accrual of lower-than-anticipated expenses and higher-than-anticipated revenue in any given year.
 
That represented a 90 percent jump from the $350,000 allocated from E&D for fiscal year 2024, which ends on June 30. And, coupled with more robust use of the district's tuition revenue account (7 percent more in FY25) and School Choice revenue (3 percent more), the draw down on E&D is seen as a stopgap measure to mitigate a spike in FY25 expenses and an unsustainable budgeting strategy long term, administrators say.
 
The budget passed by the School Committee on Thursday continues to rely more heavily on reserves than in years past, but to a lesser extent than originally proposed.
 
Specifically, the budget the panel approved includes a total assessment to Williamstown of $13,775,336 (including capital and operating costs) and a total assessment to Lanesborough of $6,425,373.
 
As a percentage increase from the FY24 assessments, that translates to a 3.90 percent increase to Williamstown and a 3.38 percent increase to Lanesborough.
 
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