WESTFIELD — The Northampton boys cross country team had a near perfect regular season. The team went 8-1 overall and arguably has the best 1-2 punch in the area with Tobias L’Esperance and Simon LaClair.
Although the team competed at a high level during the season, the coaching staff felt that there was still another level that the program could reach.
The Blue Devils put it all together on Saturday.
Northampton, led by L’Esperance’s first-place run and LaClair’s runner-up finish, placed first with 46 points at the PVIAC Championship at Stanley Park.
L’Esperance finished the 3.1-mile course in 15 minutes, 52 seconds. LaClair was six seconds behind.
Amherst Regional (104), Longmeadow (122), Hampshire Regional (153) and West Springfield (202) rounded out the top five.
Belchertown placed sixth (215). Frontier Regional (12th, 343) just missed the top 10.
Hampshire Regional’s Christopher Vayda (third, 16:01) and Belchertown’s Evan Dunigan (fifth, 16:22) earned top-five finishes.
Northampton’s Benjamin Howe (sixth, 16:32) and Amherst’s Walter Tebbetts (seventh, 16:35) earned top-10 finishes.
Timothy Jacques (11th, 16:42) and Jonathan Lischetti (26th, 17:18) also scored for the Blue Devils.
“We really haven’t put a good race together until today,” Northampton coach Dave Reinhart said. “We had a lot of faith, but not everyone ran well on the same day, but that is what you try and do in the postseason.”
The top-three finishers at last year’s championship meet graduated. L’Esperance knew that competition at the top of the pack this year was going to be fierce.
“My coach said to just win, don’t worry about the time,” L’Esperance said. “Everything came together. On a team level we also wanted to win. Win individually and as a team for varsity and JV. That was the goal.”
Stanley Park boasts an overall flat terrain, but has two points where runners go downhill and one uphill stretch during the second mile. L’Esperance felt that his ability to take advantage of the hilly areas gave him a boost down the stretch.
“Once I hit the hills, it was over,” he said.
L’Esperance ran toward the front and hovered around third place for the first half of the race, but made his move in the final mile.
“Simon (LaClair) was actually ahead of me until the 2-mile mark,” L’Esperance said. “It was (Vayda) and then Simon drafting off his shoulder, then me a few feet behind. As we came out of the lollipop loop at the bottom of the hill, I saw an opening and just went for it.”
L’Esperance and LaClair looked to Vayda as a vehicle to push themselves forward throughout the race.
“Coming into today I knew there were nine guys that could run 16:10 and 16:30,” LaClair said. “I was on the slower side of that. … Coming through the mile I felt great. I just kept my eyes on Chris Vayda. I think he really pushed me and helped me run the time I did. I’m hyped.”
Northampton placed second behind Amherst last year. Both teams scored a 71 and a tiebreaker was used to determine the champion. The Hurricanes had the fifth-runner advantage and earned a narrow victory.
Earning a landslide victory this season felt fitting for the team.
“It’s a great feeling, especially with it being our senior year. We are very happy,” L’Esperance said. “We ran into trouble with a really good freshman (Riley Cole) getting injured at basketball camp and Eben (Saveson) getting hurt. For us to still win PVIAC, we are very lucky.”
The Western Massachusetts championships will be at Northfield Mountain on Saturday.
“Western Mass. is always a totally different race,” Reinhart said. “It’s on a hilly course and you never know if you have the horses for hilly races, but we are going to reboot and put in a good 10-day training block. We know Amherst is very good, we respect them. They beat us in a dual meet this year. We really respect the runners and coaches on that team.”