Northampton boys cross country head coach Eric Pfalzgraf faces a tall task in his second year managing the Blue Devils program – how do you fill the shoes of superstar runner Riley Cole?
Pfalzgraf acknowledges the “magnitude” to which Cole impacted the program – the senior contended for a state title, finishing second in his first full year of running cross-country, and was the Gazette’s 2021 Boys Cross-Country Athlete of the Year. The gifted distance runner is continuing his running career at UMass this fall while Pfalzgraf looks to a new group of runners to step up in Northampton.
“Riley’s one guy, but if we have a lot of the returners from last year and they improve, which typically you do just generally as a high school runner – if we get those guys who were already running like 17 (minute times) last year to improve and really be a nice, tight pack, that can kind of change how we approach races and meets,” Pfalzgraf said.
Northampton is returning a number of athletes who have a high ceiling. Theodore King-Pollet was the team’s No. 2 runner last year and improved consistently as the season progressed. King-Pollet and fellow junior Davis Wheat should lead this year’s group along with senior Jude Mourad; all three finished within eight seconds of each other at the 2021 All-State meet. That consistency is a huge strength for teams when it comes to scoring in cross-country – the closer that runners finish together, the better. It could also foster more competition among teammates jostling for a top spot, pulling everybody along to faster times in races.
“That’s what I mean by the dynamic changing — we may not have one ‘alpha’ leader, but we have a lot of guys who are seniors (and) juniors who I think are all going to be clumped pretty close together,” Pfalzgraf said. “They’re all going to lead the team together.”
That pack-running strategy will likely be utilized by the Northampton girls team as well, which is also in a good spot after qualifying for the Division 2 state race last season and finishing fourth at the PVIAC championship meet. While they lost two of their top performers in Esme Marini-Rapaport and Lily Shimpach, the Blue Devils returned the other eight of their top 10 runners from last season. Expect Maeve O’Neil and Norah Reade to lead the Blue Devils on the course this fall.
For Hampshire Regional, this fall season will be a tale of two programs.
The Raiders are coming off a tremendous performance at the Division 3 state meet last year, peaking at the right time and coming back with hardware for both the boys and girls teams. The boys finished third overall while the girls took home a fifth place performance, a successful end to a stellar season.
For the girls program, there’s a chance that they could soar even higher this year. Last year’s squad was talented but young, so they didn’t have the experience that some of their older competitors did. This year, they’re much more battle-tested.
“They have a lot more confidence, especially because some of our strongest runners are actually quite young. Last year, they didn’t – I don’t think they really knew what their potential was,” Hampshire head coach Sue Tracy said. “Now they have the fire, they really want to see what they can do. And so that’s going to be really neat to see how they’re able to capitalize on that.”
Top performer Sylvie Mahon-Moore graduated last year, but there to take her place this year will be freshman Keegan Butler, senior Ellia Masenior, and freshman Sicily Chase, who all placed in the top 50 at All-States. They’ll remain a fierce contender in the Pioneer League South, and if they can stay healthy and rely on some of their newcomers for depth, they should make another postseason appearance.
But while the girls returned four of their top five runners, it’s a different story for the boys team. The Raiders graduated six seniors last year, and four of them were some of the team’s top scorers. Beyond that, the seniors brought a chemistry that made last year’s team a ‘special’ group, according to Tracy. Though the team will return a good core group of runners, including senior Dillon Neveu and juniors Nick Brisson, Gavin DaFonte and Tim Cahill, the seniors and the depth they provided will be sorely missed.
“The boys are really fired up because they had such a great last season, they’re just like, ‘Yes, we are going back to states, we’re going to do this.’” But what we’re seeing from the coaches perspective is that we don’t have the depth. There’s no room for error here,” Tracy said. “We now need a fifth runner to come up and join that group, and we don’t have any wiggle room for anything to go wrong.”
If Riley Cole was the runner to watch on the boys side last season, Tamar Byl-Brann was the star on the girls side of things.
As a junior, Byl-Brann was one of Amherst’s top scorers all season long, and she only got better as the fall went on. Byl-Brann placed fourth overall in the PVIAC championship meet, and finished 16th at the state meet. One of the biggest storylines this season will be Byl-Brann dueling Longmeadow’s Ada Grant, one of the other top runners from last year. Grant is still just a junior, but bested Byl-Brann in all of their meets last year. Despite chasing Grant, Byl-Brann closed the gap significantly – by the state meet, Byl-Brann finished just three seconds behind Longmeadow’s star.
“She had a really good summer of training and I know she ran a lot of miles, didn’t overdo it, and she’s coming into the season very well prepared and excited about the season,” Amherst girls head coach Ron Jacobs said of Byl-Brann. “Ada Grant from Longmeadow was also really good last year. So I would guess that it’s going to be those two battling it out all season long, at least in Western Mass.”
Rounding out Amherst’s top three are April Schilling and Elizabeth Sawicki, both returners who will ensure that Amherst remains at the top of the heap in Western Mass. Schilling, a senior, was close on Byl-Brann’s tail for most of last year. Meanwhile, Sawicki shined as a freshman who hadn’t run much farther than three miles before joining the Hurricanes cross-country team. She might be the strongest athlete on Amherst’s roster this season.
The Amherst boys squad should be just as fiercely competitive as it was in 2021. Though seniors Ben Buffone and Ryan Yanko have graduated, David Pinero-Jacome, Kyle Yanko and Diego Lopez will anchor the team. Another runner to watch is Pinero-Jacome’s twin, Miguel, who is joining the cross-country team after a stellar outdoor track season.
One of the biggest departures from the Amherst cross-country program is head coach Elena Betke-Brunswick, who had been the heart and soul of the girls team for the past five seasons. Luckily for the ‘Canes, this will just be a one-year break for Betke-Brunswick to spend time with her family, including her young children.
“She’s taking like a one-year sabbatical from the team. We all miss her. I fully expect her to be back next year,” Jacobs said. “She’s a really important presence on the team and she’s somebody that the girls look up to a lot and really look forward to staying in touch with her long after they graduate.”
Like Hampshire, the Frontier girls squad is comprised mostly of returnees who were some of their top scorers. Though Sadie Ross graduated last year, the rest of last year’s top performers are back after placing fifth at the PVIAC meet and ninth at states.
“We have a solid core of returning runners. They are experienced and road tested. Abigail Howard, Leah Gump, Angelina Egland, Sasha Malo, Nicole Plasse, Sylvie DiBartolomeo, and Mary Burt will be our foundation on which we will continue to try to build,” veteran Frontier head coach Bob Smith said.
The boys team also returned most of its runners; senior Patrick Boyden graduated last year but mainstays including senior Erich Brown and freshman Luke Howard are back.
Look for Howard to improve this season and possibly be a contender with the other top Western Mass. runners. Just an eighth-grader a year ago, Howard was the top performer for Frontier, qualifying for All-States and placing 69th.
A few other individuals will look to improve their personal records this year out on the cross country course.
Holyoke’s Elijah Quinn was the Purple Knights’ best runner last year, and returns to the fold for his junior year.
The Belchertown boys qualified for All-States last year, and have a shot to get back there again this year. Brothers Trevor and Brandon Adamson are both back for the Orioles and look to remain the team’s No. 1 and 2 runners.
Gateway’s girls team is anchored by two of their younger runners, freshman Alexandra Henrichon and eighth grader Anya Niles. Henrichon qualified for All-States last year as an eighth grader, and Niles won four individual races as a seventh grader last year. The two of them should be the core of the Gators cross-country team for the rest of their high school careers.