Fractions of a second separated Benjamin Gordon Sniffen from an All-State championship.
The Northampton senior was edged by William Cole-French of Boston College High School by the closest of margins in the 1,000-meter run, Saturday at the Reggie Lewis Center in Boston.
Cole-French won in 2 minutes, 30.94 seconds. Gordon Sniffen was second by 0.01 seconds.
The Blue Devils placed seventh and had the best finish of any school from western Massachusetts with 17 points. Lowell was first with 44.
Gordon Sniffen wasn’t the only local athlete who could have had moved up one spot for what amounted to fractions of a second.
Northampton senior Ethan Cooper finished fourth in the 600 in 1:22.28. He was 0.02 seconds behind Jonathan Polanco Soto of Leominster.
Amherst Regional senior Sophia Jacobs-Townsley was third in the 2-mile in 10:43.92. Lauren Grela, of Ursuline Academy, edged her for second by 0.11.
Elsewhere in the boys meet, Northampton’s 4×800 relay of Benjamin Howe, Eben Saveson, Tobias L’Esperance and Simon LeClair was fifth in 8:06.39.
Amherst’s 4×400 relay of Junior Pontes da Veiga, Ben Fang, Isaiah Moyston and Kai Bailin finished seventh in 3:27.47.
In the girls meet, Amherst junior Isabela Shepard found the podium in the 600 with an eighth-place finish in 1:37.95.
South Hadley teammates Lindsay Marjanski and Savannah Sudyka placed in the field.
Marjanski was fifth in the high jump with a leap of 5 feet, 4 inches. Sudyka was sixth in the shot put at 36-7¼.
The New England indoor championship meet will be held Saturday at the Reggie Lewis Center. The top six finishers in each event qualify. The seventh- and eighth-place finishers serve as alternates.