With the MIAA qualifying race coming up this weekend, Riley Cole has his eyes fixed on the state meet, and there’s very little stopping him from achieving that goal.
The Northampton senior has been a fast-rising star on the cross-country scene this season, often running solo at the front of a sizable portion of the Blue Devils’ meets. He’s already broken three course records this season, his first full year as a cross-country runner, which makes his success all the more remarkable.
“I did soccer and basketball my freshman year, and I picked up running through track my freshman year,” Cole said on his introduction to the sport. “I was injured my sophomore year, and junior year was (the pandemic), so this is my first real cross country season, and it’s been great so far.”
He set a new personal best at the PVIAC Championships last Saturday in Westfield, crossing the finish line with a winning time of 15 minutes, 37.08 seconds – 12 seconds ahead of his next competitor. It was a performance that helped the Blue Devils earn a third-place team finish, just six points ahead of Hampshire Regional.
“All the other kids see how incredible (Cole) is, and they take that and they give it their all, too. He makes it go,” said Northampton head coach Eric Pfalzgraf. “He’s super focused, too. All eyes ahead.”
Along with Cole, Theodore King-Pollet, Davis Wheat, Jude Mourad and the rest of the Northampton team will attempt to qualify as a group this Saturday at the MIAA Division 2 state qualifier meet in Gardner. It’s a new format this season to qualify for the state meet: schools were sorted into three divisions, each one running at a different location. Division 1 will race at Wrentham Developmental Center, Division 2 will run at the Gardner Golf Course, and Division 3 will travel to Stanley Park in Westfield to compete. Each division will be divided up into three waves – A, B and C. The top seven teams in each wave will qualify for the state meet, along with the fastest 10 individuals who were not members of the qualifying teams. Two wild card teams will also qualify for the state race.
Meanwhile, the Amherst girls team will try to chase down new rival Longmeadow in the Division 2B race. The Lancers have proven to be an unexpected rival for the Hurricanes this season, though they still haven’t been able to catch them yet. Amherst finished 20 points behind Longmeadow at the most recent PVIAC Championship race, but at a large race like state qualifying, anything can happen.
The Hurricanes are also currently riding a 29-year streak when it comes to qualifying for the state meet, one of the longest postseason streaks in Massachusetts. The Hurricanes are co-lead by the pair of Tamar Byl-Brann and April Schilling, with teammates Elizabeth Sawicki and Amrita Rutter not far behind them.
A number of schools will also be competing at the Division 3 level in Westfield. Both the girls’ and boys’ teams for Easthampton, Frontier, Gateway, Granby, Hampshire and PVCICS will be racing on Saturday for a chance to move on to run at states. A few runners to watch out for include Hampshire’s Gulian Marconi and Odin Moore from PVCICS, as well as Hampshire’s Sylvie Mahon-Moore, Ellia Masenior and Sicily Chase, and Frontier’s Leah Gump.
You can find the runners competing this weekend at the Divisional qualifiers below, in addition to their wave and starting time.
Boys’ starting time: 10 a.m. in Gardner
Girls’ starting time: 10:45 a.m. in Gardner
Amherst: Aidan Bergeron, Marisol Bonifaz, Ben Buffone, Tamar Byl-Brann, Lia Cullen, Tristan Dole, Julia Edgerly, Diego Lopez, Bevin Montgomery-Gehrt, David Pinero-Jacome, Amrita Rutter, Elizabeth Sawicki, Jane Scanlan-Emigh, April Schilling, Ryan Schneider, Ian Waite, Spencer Waite, Kyle Yanko, Ryan Yanko, Ava Zimmerman
Boys’ starting time: 11:30 a.m. in Gardner
Girls’ starting time: 12:15 p.m. in Gardner
Northampton: Kaz Andrews, Riley Cole, Benjamin Correard, Calvin Cote-LHeureux, Tess Geis-Benton, Hailey Higgins-Figueroa, Theodore King-Pollet, Taylor Lynch, Esmé Marini-Rapoport, Elizabeth McDonough, Jude Mourad, Maeve O’Neil, Kai Paik, Norah Reade, Isaac Roth, Lily Shimpach, Summer Sorensen, Lucien Vaget, Davis Wheat, Zachary Wheat
Boys’ starting time: 1:00 p.m. in Gardner
Girls’ starting time: 1:45 p.m. in Gardner
Belchertown: Brandon Adamson, Trevor Adamson, Molly Bail, Derek Gould, Evan Harrington, Samuel Hunt, Paige Ivey, Ty O’Donnell, Logan Lacroix, Amy Mas, Carter Masse, Allison Morris, Shanelle Nganga, Laura Potter, Nicholas Rivers, Natalie Shaw, Forrest Sherson, Cameron Ting, Megan Watts, Kami Wlodyka
Boys’ starting time: 11:30 a.m. in Westfield
Girls’ starting time: 12:15 p.m. in Westfield
Easthampton: Brooke Bongiovanni, Julianne Markee, Molly Marsh, Cindel Melanson, Marley Reardon, Brianna Sullivan, James Aquino, Leverett Horrigan, Lincoln Kane Long, Braden Lynn, Michael Massa, Jabari Sifrin, Gianni Soucy
Frontier: Sylvie DiBartolomeo, Angelina Egland, Leah Gump, Iris Hill, Abigail Howard, Sasha Malo, Fiona McFarland, Nicole Plasse, Sadie Ross, Ayla Starr, Patrick Boyden, Erich Brown, Oliver Brown, Evan Hedlund, Luke Howard, Miles Keefe, Amory Maxey, Mason Smith, Noah Smith, Pax Stark
Hampshire: Keegan Butler, Sicily Chase, Summer Duda, Anna Dunlap, Margot LaPlante, Sylvie Mahon-Moore, Ellia Masenior, Ellie Meunier, Amelia Perry, Katie Shallcross, Nick Brisson, Tim Cahill, Evan Coltman, Gavin DaFonte, Jeffrey Fish, Nathaniel Godden, Gulian Marconi, Dillon Neveu, Spencer Reese, Jackson Seney
Boys’ starting time: 1:00 p.m. in Westfield
Girls’ starting time: 1:45 p.m. in Westfield
Granby: Alicia D’Amour, Aurora Lee, Esther Ngure, Jacob Benson, Nathan Benson, Samuel Brase, Griffin Funk, Braeden Gallagher, Nolan Hall, Nathan Hutchinson, Brady Pete, Robert Walsh
Gateway: Alexandra Henrichon, Kaitlyn Maynard, Anya Niles, Lily Peloquin, Lucy Pitoniak, Abby Robbins, Ashley Tacke, Sawyer Wilkinson, Jeffrey Antonellis, Jesse Balboni, Sean Forgue, Elijah Gilbert, Logan Hawley, Connor Hourihan, Liam Hourihan, Jacob Maynard, Dominic Zajko
PVCICS: Biya Chaudhry, Ava Crowley, Nina Dejnak, Nina Drummond, Sarah Fardal, Mahri Hayden, Jaime Liu, Ada Nystrom, Noa Rubinstein, Isla Salus, RJ Allen, Owen Bauman, Kyan Frantz, Aaron Lo, Odin Moore, Hugo Shinn, Frank Sup, Grafton Tolopko, Gaius Turner, Nathaniel Tuttle