WESTFIELD — Hampshire Regional’s Chris Vayda crossed the finish line out of breath at the Western Massachusetts Division 2 Cross Country Championship.
Vayda knew what he had accomplished though. The junior won his first sectional title, finishing the 5-kilometer course at Stanley Park in 16 minutes, 29 seconds.
Midway through the race, Vayda began to pull away from the competition. Defending champion Jesse Seid, of Mount Greylock, was second in 16:50.
“Right when I was coming out of that loop at the 2-mile mark, I was really feeling good, kind of pushing at those last few hills,” Vayda said.
Led by Vayda, Hampshire finished second with 100 points.
Greylock (47) won the championship. Frontier was third (127), led by Carsten Carey’s third-place finish (16:54).
With plenty of competition in the race, Vayda knew he needed to push himself to come out on top.
“I knew I would have Carsten and Jesse,” Vayda said. “It was just going to be us three, so I had to get out in front and just try to get in front as fast as possible, just try to get it all the way.”
With the state championships next weekend, Vayda is focused on improving his placement from last year.
“I think last year I got around 70th, so this year I’m going to try to get topv20 this year,” Vayda said.
Sophomore Jadyn Kopie (18th, 17:42), junior Max MacFadzen (23rd, 17:48), senior Jacob Labrie (27th, 17:52) and freshman Nitesh Roncone (31st,18:01) contributed to Hampshire’s second-place finish.
After his team’s performance on Saturday, Vayda was confident in the success of Hampshire’s team in the future.
“We’re really young and I think we can basically compete for Western Mass. for a lot more years,” he said.
Not far behind Vayda was Carey. Even with his strong run, Carey knew he could do better.
“The team’s expectations certainly were to win this race, and I was confident we were right up until the finish,” said Carey, a senior. “Our group of guys might have been the best group of guys out there, but a few things didn’t go the way we thought and that’s just how it is sometimes.”
Carey’s teammate Alex Sharpe finished 15th in 17:38. Carey’s brother, Peter, finished 21st in 17:46.
Greylock, Hampshire and Frontier advanced to next weekend’s state meet.
Andrew Hutchinson, of Granby, finished 14th overall in 17:27 and qualified for the state meet. The Rams finished eighth.
Hopkins Academy was 11th. Freshman Johnathon Hanscom was 19th (17:42) for the Golden Hawks.
Ben Drenen (82nd, 20:33) led Gateway Regional (18th).
Hampshire continued its success finishing as a top-five team in the championship. The Raiders (141) placed fourth behind Mount Greylock (41), Lenox (43) and Mohawk (115).
Freshman Sylvie Mahon-Moore was 15th (20:58) for Hampshire.
Behind Mahon-Moore placed Madeline Jenkins, who came in 19th in 21:14. Despite the difficult running conditions, Jenkins was still satisfied with her performance.
“I think I did pretty good,” Jenkins said. “The course was a little hard to run on because of how muddy it was, but overall I think I did pretty good.”
Mahon-Moore and Jenkins each qualified for the state meet.
Hampshire’s Anna Dunlap, who finished 43rd overall, also was content with her finish.
“I think I did pretty good,” she said. “I think I beat my time from the PVIAC race … so that was good.”
Dunlap also acknowledged the tough conditions.
“It was really muddy. There were so many puddles, I almost fell a few times,” said Dunlap.
Angelina Egland (31st, 22:08) had the top time for Frontier, which finished ninth.
Jenna Learned (39th, 22:28) led Granby (13th).
Addie Kopacz was 78th (25:03) for Gateway Regional (14th).
Emily Boutin of Pope Francis won the race in 18:19. Meghan Davis of Mohawk was second in 18:29.