WRENTHAM – Hampshire Regional knew going into the MIAA Division 3 Cross Country state meet that the chance was there to place well. Top ten, maybe even top seven, if they were being optimistic.
What the Raiders got Saturday was a performance that was above and beyond what they could have hoped for: a fifth place finish from the girls team, and a top-three finish on the boys side.
“I feel like we were almost like an underdog team,” Hampshire standout Sylvie Mahon-Moore said. “So it’s pretty exciting to even get this far.”
It was, at last, the perfect ending to a season that had eluded the Raiders for the last few years.
“I knew we could (do it), and I’m so excited that we did because I feel like we hadn’t quite fulfilled our biggest potential until this point,” Hampshire senior Gulian Marconi said. “It just means everything because, you know, it’s our last race.”
“We noticed the last couple seasons that they seem to peak about two weeks before we wanted them to, and that seemed to be happening multiple times,” Hampshire head coach Sue Tracy said. “So we said, all right, we’ve got to change things.”
The teams focused more on base and hill work early on, saving their speed work for later in the season and emphasizing a pack-running mentality across the board. That paid off for both squads, and it made the performance that much sweeter for the seniors, especially on the boys’ side.
“We had a really strong team last year, but it didn’t mean anything to anybody… and the year before we had a really strong team, but we peaked early… so that was disappointing,” Tracy said. “Pretty much all those boys are still running, we have a lot of seniors, so it’s really a redemption race for them to say like, ‘yes, we are this good.’”
It’s hard to look at a runner-up title at the state meet as a disappointment, but it wasn’t the ending to the season that Northampton senior Riley Cole was hoping for.
After sticking close to Nashoba’s Freddy Collins for the first two miles, Cole struggled in the final leg of the race before crossing the line in second place with a time of 15 minutes, 45.3 seconds.
“I did realize that before I even started that I definitely had some GI issues, my stomach was really bugging me and I wasn’t feeling great like I had been in the past races,” Cole said. “I almost PR’d (at) the two mile. But then the last mile, I was not in it anymore, and I just lost focus.”
Though Cole didn’t win his individual battle with Nashoba, the team won the war against them – the Blue Devils finished seventh overall as a team with 224 points, a mere four points ahead of eighth-place Nashoba. That was thanks in part to the finishes of Theodore King-Pollet (62nd, 17:06.3), and especially Northampton’s third overall runner Jude Mourad, who placed 66th with a 17:12.6.
“(Mourad) was running as kind of like our fifth runner for most of the season, and he finished third for us today,” Northampton head coach Eric Pfalzgraf said. “He cut down a PR by (about) 10-15 seconds or so, so he’s just been on a roll.”
Amherst’s Tamar Byl-Brann had another strong outing on Saturday, breaking into the top 20 and placing 16th overall with a time of 19:16.2. It was also a good day for junior April Schilling, who broke 20 minutes for the first time this season, crossing the line in 19:57.4, good for 45th overall.
It was a big stage for the young Hurricanes, who didn’t have a single senior on their seven-person states roster. They finished 14th as a group, but gained valuable experience on the state meet course. Both Schilling and Byl-Brann praised the team’s underclassmen for their improvements throughout the season.
“I think everyone’s really happy, because coming off from last season where we didn’t have any big meets like this, I think everyone’s just so proud of how far they’ve come,” Schilling said. “Especially for the freshmen on varsity – it’s hard but like, you’re at states.”
“They’re so young and they’re coming off COVID, where they didn’t have any experience,” added Byl-Brann. “They really pulled through, and they’ve just been really embracing all the change.”
The Amherst boys team finished 10th overall with 220 points, and while head coach Chris Gould was happy with his team’s finish, the local rivalries still thrived, even at the highest level.
“I thought we ran solidly once again. We’re never happy when Northampton and Longmeadow both beat us again, yet those two teams both ran exceptional races again,” Gould said. “I thought all of our runners ran to their ability… in general, our runners stuck to their plan.”
The Frontier girls team cracked the top 10 in the team standings, finishing ninth overall with 271 points. Their top finisher was Leah Gump, who crossed the finish in a time of 20:42.7 in 46th place.
The Belchertown boys also had a productive state meet in their first trip back since 2002. Six of the Orioles’ seven runners had personal bests on the course, and senior Evan Harrington was the top Belchertown runner, posting a time of 17:13.8, good for 71st place.
The Northampton girls’ team finished 19th overall, with Esme Marini-Rapoport (86th, 20:33.6) crossing the line first for the Blue Devils.
Odin Moore had another impressive outing for the Pioneer Valley Chinese Immersion Charter School, placing 18th overall in his race with a time of 16:45.6. Moore was the top local finisher in the boys Division 3 race.
Kyan Frantz, PVCICS’ other individual qualifier, crossed the line in 76th place with a time of 17:53.1.
Luke Howard from Frontier placed 69th with a time of 17:44.3 in the Division 3 race. Also running in the Division 3 boys race was Dominic Zajko from Gateway, who broke 18 minutes with a 17:59.8 time, good for 85th place.
Gateway’s Alexandra Henrichon placed 86th in the girls race with a time of 21:33.8. Just a couple places behind her was Caprial DiBartolomeo from Hopkins Academy, who finished 88th with a time of 21:35.7.