WRENTHAM — Sophia Jacobs-Townsley set a lofty goal, which she usually does for herself, and even though she didn’t quite meet it, her day was still a good one.
For the second straight year, the Amherst Regional junior turned in a top-five finish at the state girls Division 1 cross country championship. Jacobs-Townsley covered the 3.1-mile course at the Wrentham Developmental Center in 18 minutes, 19 seconds to take fourth place Saturday.
It was a notch below the third-place finish at states a year ago. Jacobs-Townsley wanted to do at least that well or better, but she ran into some steep competition.
“I’m pretty excited with my finish,” Jacobs-Townsley said. “The competition was a lot tougher this year.”
Natick’s Grace Connelly (17:50) repeated as state champion and the next three spots were up for grabs between Margaret Donahue (18:07), of Wellesley, Bridget Mitchell (18:08), of Milton, and Jacobs-Townsley.
“Any one of us could have finished as high as second,” Jacobs-Townsley said. “I was hoping that if all the pieces fell into place, I could win, but I really didn’t get my hopes up.”
The race started out fast.
“I went out faster than I probably should have and I did get a little fatigued,” she said. “But I got a second wind and hoped to hold onto it.”
For another Amherst junior, the boys Division 1 race did not go quite as expected.
Sectional and PVIAC champion Jack Yanko finished 29th in 16:22. He appeared to be in good shape around the 10-minute mark when he was among the top four, but faded down the stretch.
“Jack’s naturally disappointed, but not devastated,” Amherst coach Chris Gould said.
Yanko may have been disappointed, but he was still able to shake off that finish after the race. He is looking forward to competing at Foot Locker Northeast Regional, Nov. 25 at VanCortlandt Park in Bronx, New York.
“It just wasn’t my day,” Yanko said. “I hope to do better at Foot Locker next week.”
The challenging and slippery course along with the competition was too much to overcome.
The Hampshire Regional girls team finished 12th in Division 2.
“It was great to make an appearance at states,” Raiders coach Sue Tracy said. “This is a great group of kids, some of whom I’ve had since seventh grade.”
Lily Hakkarainen led the Raiders by placing 60th in 20:42.
“This was an incredible experience and I’m so glad I got to have this time with my team,” Hakkarainen said. “We were so happy to have this opportunity.”
Western Massachusetts boys Division 1 champion Northampton was 14th.
Ben Gordon-Shiffen was 59th in 16:38 and teammate Nick Peterson was 61st in 16:43.
“I went out really hard and thankfully, I had my teammate, Nick, right with me,” said Gordon-Shiffen, who came to cross country this season after playing soccer the previous two. “Just being here was big for our team. Massachusetts is really deep this year and while the times may not reflect it, the competition was stiff. Everyone pushed it to the limit and ran their max today.”
Hamp coach Brandon Palmer noted this year’s seniors were freshmen when the Blue Devils last won Western Mass.
“It was a great way to bookend their careers,” Palmer said. “We had higher expectations today and it’s definitely hard to keep the pedal down after PVIACs and Western Mass. But we couldn’t have written a better script to this season.”
The Frontier boys finished 15th in Division 2 boys. The Red Hawks were led by Carsten Carey, who was 29th in 16:59.
“I was happy with my time – the last time I ran states I was a freshman and I definitely made a big jump,” the junior said. “The mud make the course sleek. This was a challenging race – there were a lot of great runners from all over the state.”
Alex Sharpe was 56th for Frontier in 17:22.
Carey was inspired by the competition.
“Coming here and saying you’re racing the best competition in Division 2 is something you can’t get anywhere else,” Carey said. “We had a great year and we accomplished almost everything we hoped for.”
Western Mass. girls Division 1 champion Amherst finished 15th. Julia Hopley was 44th in 19:42.
Northampton was 18th as Mary Yount finished 15th in 19:06.
It was sheer determination that enabled Yount to cross the finish line, which she did with an emphatic jump. She was nearly out of gas, but pushed hard at the end.
“This was a really hard race and I was done at the finish line – I had nothing left,” Yount said. “It’s so nice we can carry this on and it’s so nice to be here.”
Blue Devils coach Leslie Charles was happy for her team.
“I’m so proud and these girls just make me cry,” Charles said. “It’s been such a fun season. We were totally successful both emotionally and physically.”
As for individual qualifiers, South Hadley’s Jocelyn Rondeau was 131st in 20:55 in the Division 1 race.
In the boys Division 1 race, Aidan Shea was 100th (17:05) and Aiden Foucault Etheridge was 124th (17:24) for Amherst. Joe Werenski was 131st (17:29) for South Hadley, while Evan Dunigan was 162nd (17:59) for Belchertown.
In Division 2, Chris Vayda was 73rd (17:36) for Hampshire.