WESTFIELD – If she had the choice, Amherst’s Tamar Byl-Brann would rather chase others in a race. But when the first runner came out of the woods at Stanley Park on Sunday afternoon, it was Byl-Brann, and she was all alone.
Byl-Brann cruised to an easy first-place finish at the Western Massachusetts Division 1 Cross Country Championships, crossing the finish line in 18 minutes, 50.97 seconds, but that was the only easy thing about the race for Amherst. The Hurricanes and rival Northampton went head to head in the girls Div. 1 race, and though it was a close call, Amherst came out on top with a team score of 40, a mere three points ahead of Northampton (43).
“I’m more excited about (the team win) than anything, that was really exciting,” Byl-Brann said. “It’s just a nice, full circle moment because I remember freshman year and I never would have imagined winning a race.”
Three Amherst runners cracked the top 10 individually on the girls side – Byl-Brann, April Schilling (7th, 19:55.45) and Elizabeth Sawicki (8th, 20:09.75).
Norah Reade finished right behind Byl-Brann, leading the way for Northampton with a second-place finish in 19:23.38. Maeve O’Neil also cracked the top 10 for Northampton, finishing under the 20-minute mark with a sixth-place finish (19:43.07).
The three-point difference between Amherst and Northampton was a little salt in the wound for the runner-up Blue Devils – in their dual meet earlier this season, the Hurricanes also walked away with a three-point victory (26-29). Luckily, divisional realignment means that Northampton will get another crack at Amherst at the upcoming MIAA Division 2 sectional meet.
“I think we can definitely get them. We’ve lost to them by three points, both times,” Reade said. “So I think we can definitely do it.”
Belchertown’s Molly Bail was right outside of the top 10, placing 11th for Belchertown with a 20:52.80. Right behind her in 12th and 13th were Northampton’s Anna Zamer (21:02.22) and Tess Geis-Benton (21:09.73). Amherst’s Isla Cusick (21:25.79) and Claire Kennedy (21:41.42) were 14th and 16th, respectively, and Northampton’s Lily Zamer placed 17th with a 21:46.13.
On the boys side of things, Amherst added some more hardware to its collection with a second-place finish as a team in the Division 1 race. The Hurricanes amassed 72 points, finishing behind a dominant Longmeadow team, which scored its top-five runners in the top 17.
The Hurricanes were led by the reliable David Pinero-Jacome, who moved up to second place with an impressive performance in the back half of the race. Pinero-Jacome crossed the line in 16:38.26.
“I knew I was gaining distance, so I figured go for it. And it worked,” Pinero-Jacome said on his finish. “I had momentum, I had the crowd cheering, I didn’t feel anything but me moving forward. It was a good race.”
Also in the top five was Northampton’s Theodore King-Pollet, who stuck with Pinero-Jacome for the majority of the race before falling back slightly in the final mile.
Northampton finished sixth as a team with 128 points, eight points behind recently-promoted Belchertown, which didn’t expect to compete in the Division 1 race but did quite well, finishing fifth with 120 points. The Orioles were led by the dynamic duo of Brandon (17:36.48) and Trevor Adamson (17:36.75), who placed 18th and 19th, respectively.
“Just give me a race, I’ll bring the kids. I don’t really hem and haw about it,” Belchertown boys head coach Bill Wheeler said. “Being able to race against all of those top tier teams, (I) was kind of saying myself, if we could come in top seven, like we have to do at sectionals, then it’s another good little stepping point.”
Amherst’s Samuel Woodruff (17:22.48) and Diego Lopez (17:27.64) placed 12th and 15th, respectively, just ahead of Northampton’s Davis Wheat (17:31.80), who finished 16th. Holyoke’s Elijah Quinn finished 21st with a time of 17:41.92.
On the Division 2 side of things, it was Hampshire Regional that shined among local schools, placing second in the girls race and fourth as a team in the boys. It wasn’t an easy day for either program – on the girls side, it came down to a single point between Hampshire (84) and third-place Frontier (85). Mount Greylock nabbed the team title on the girls side.
“When we’re able to beat like Lenox or Frontier, it’s a big moment and so even though Mount Greylock beat us, we still managed to get second,” Hampshire’s Kathleen Barry said.
Though Hampshire edged the Redhawks on the team side, it was Frontier that had the best performance of the day with Leah Gump placing third overall with a time of 20:14.76. Also in the top 10 for Frontier was senior Abigail Howard, who crossed the line in eighth (21:03.57).
“I was really thinking about going out there and just giving it the best that I had. We had a longer break after our last league meet. So I was well rested,” Gump said. “I just went out there, started off fast and tried to hold on to that as long as I could.”
Hampshire’s top performer was Barry, an eighth grader who ran a time of 20:28.96 to place fourth overall. Just outside the top 10 for the Raiders were Sicily Chase (21:15.79) and Ellia Masenior (21:17.56), who placed 12th and 13th, respectively.
Other notable finishes on the girls side were Hopkins Academy’s Caprial DiBartolomeo (21:15.32), who placed 11th, Frontier teammates Sylvie DiBartolomeo (21:52.44) in 23rd and Bianca Peura (22:14.18) in 26th, and Hampshire’s Amelia Perry (22:14.95) in 27th. Gateway’s Anya Stiles paced the Gators in 35th position.
It was a tougher road for the Hampshire boys, which were missing one of their top three runners in Gavin DaFonte. Despite that, they were still able to pull off a fourth-place finish in one of the tougher meets of the season. Two of their runners, Dillon Neveu (17:19.12) and Spencer Reese (17:56.31), finished in the top 20, crossing the line in 11th and 18th, respectively.
“I said at the beginning of the season if everyone was strong and healthy through the season, we’d be pretty unstoppable. But we also didn’t have a lot of depth where if something happened, we knew it was going to be a little bit of a challenge, and so that’s where we are today,” Hampshire head coach Sue Tracy said. “But the kids that could run today ran well, they ran hard. I think it’s a really good experience for them.”
Frontier’s Luke Howard placed 14th overall with a time of 17:40.09 and teammate Evan Hedlund finished 24th with an 18:17.65. PVCICS’ Kyan Frantz nabbed the 20th spot with an 18:06.35 and Grafton Tolopko (18:27.49) finished 29th. Nathan Hutchinson placed 30th overall for Granby’s top performance of the race, crossing the line in 18:30.39. Gateway’s Jacob Maynard ran to a 42nd-place performance (18:50.25).