Williams' Kirshe, U.S. Women Earn Historic Bronze Medal

01:50PM / Tuesday, July 30, 2024Print Story | Email Story

In dramatic fashion Tuesday, the U.S. women's rugby sevens and Williams College graduate Kristi Kirshe beat Australia, 14-12, to win the bronze medal at the Paris Olympic Games.

Alex Sedrick made a run from deep in the Americans' defensive zone for a try with time expired to erase a 12-7Si deficit against the favored Aussies.

Kirshe, who dominated Team USA's quarter-final victory on Monday to get to the medal round, started and played the length of Tuesday's semi-final loss and the third-place win.

After Australia, the 2016 gold medalist, was shocked by Canada in the semi-finals, the Wallabies jumped out to a 7-0 lead in the first two minutes of the bronze match.

With just more than a minute left in the first half, America's Alev Kelter scored a try off a restart from the 5-meter line, and the conversion tied the score, 7-7, going to half-time.

Early in the second half, Australia appeared to be going in for a try to take the lead, but a fumble through the try zone gave the ball back to the Americans.

Australia did break through about three minutes later, scoring with 1 minute, 41 seconds left on the clock to take the 12-7 lead.

Sidrick's heroic run turned the tables after the seven-minute clock expired and gave the U.S. its first medal of any kind in women's rugby.

The U.S. last won a medal in rugby in Paris in 1924 in 15s. Sevens (seven-on-seven) rugby was introduced to the Olympics in 2016.

iBerkshires.com Text Ads

rk MILES Blding Materials

Are You Ready to Update Your Home? Start With rk MILES. 4 Locations (800)670-7433

www.rkmiles.com

RIBCO Supply

Check out our great lineup of Boss Plows, and spreaders. 2 Locations Clarksburg & Pittsfield!

ribcosupply.com

If you would like to contribute information on this article, contact us at info@iberkshires.com.

Williamstown Fin Comm Hears from Police Department, Library

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
10:10AM / Friday, March 06, 2026

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Police Chief Michael Ziemba last week explained to the Finance Committee why an additional full-time officer needs to be added to the fiscal year 2027 budget.

The 13 officers in the Williamstown Police Department are insufficient to maintain the department's minimal threshold of two officers on patrol per shift without employing overtime and relying on the chief and the WPD's one detective to cover patrol shifts if an officer is sick or using personal time, Ziemba explained.

Some of that coverage was provided in the past by part-time officers, but that option was taken away by the commonwealth's 2020 police reform act.

"We lost two part-timers a couple of years ago," Ziemba told the Fin Comm. "They were part-time officers, but they also worked the desk. So between the desk and the cruiser shifts, they were working 40 hours a week, the two of them. We lost them to police reform.

"We have seen that we're struggling to cover shifts voluntarily now. We're starting to order people to cover time-off requests. … We don't have the flexibility when somebody goes out for a surgery or sickness or maternity leave to cover that without overtime. An additional position, I believe, would alleviate that."

Ziemba bolstered his case by benchmarking the force against like-sized communities in Berkshire County.

Adams, for example, has 19 full-time officers and handled 9,241 calls last year with a population just less than 8,000 and a coverage area of 23 square miles, Ziemba said. By comparison, Williamstown has 13 officers, handled 15,000 calls for service, has a population of about 8,000 (including staff and students at Williams College) and covers 46.9 square miles.

View Full Story