Amherst Regional's Skylar Fox finishes in the 800-meter race during the PVIAC Division 1 track and field championship at Holyoke High School, Friday, May 23, 2025, in Holyoke. Fox would finish in first place with a time of 2:18.35.
Amherst Regional’s Skylar Fox finishes in the 800-meter race during the PVIAC Division 1 track and field championship at Holyoke High School, Friday, May 23, 2025, in Holyoke. Fox would finish in first place with a time of 2:18.35. Credit: STAFF PHOTO / DANIEL JACOBI II—

The Hampshire County contingent of outdoor track and field athletes will lace them up at the MIAA Meet of Champions at Fitchburg State University, beginning Thursday afternoon at 3 p.m., then finishing off on Saturday with Day 2 of competition.

The Amherst girls team, fresh off its first-ever MIAA Division 4 state title last week, will make up most of the local athletes participating, however a handful of Amherst boys, plus athletes from Northampton, Frontier, Holyoke and South Hadley all qualified for the prestigious meet.

Athletes across all six divisions earned a spot. “The Top 16/24/32 entries in the respective events, including ties, will be selected for the Meet of Champions along with top place winner from each Divisional Championship (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6) if not within the top 16/24/32,” per the MIAA website.

Each pentathlon winner plus the next six best scores throughout the season qualified as well.

Here are all the area athletes participating:

Girls qualifiers

Girls 200: No. 8 seed, Moriah Luetjen, Amherst

Girls 400: No. 3 Moriah Luetjen, Amherst; No. 7 Yasani Thompson, Holyoke; No. 11 Ololara Baptiste, Amherst; No. 24 Ruby Austin, Amherst

Girls 400 hurdles: No. 7 Maggie Crawford, South Hadley; No. 18 Elizabeth Sawicki, Amherst; No. 32 Ella Hoogendyk, Northampton

Girls 800: No. 25 Skylar Fox, Amherst

Girls 2 mile: No. 30 Mairead O’Neil, Northampton 

Girls 4×100: No. 5 Amherst

Girls 4×400: No. 1 Amherst

Girls 4×800: No. 18 Northampton

Girls discus: No. 14 Lilly Novak, Frontier

Girls javelin: No. 12 Aimee George, South Hadley

Girls pole vault: No. 17 Elizabeth Sawicki, Amherst

Girls triple jump: No. 18 Claire Fortin, Amherst; No. 20 Ella Hoogendyk, Northampton

Girls high jump: No. 24 Maia Christensen, Frontier

Boys qualifiers

Boys 110 hurdles: No. 26 Ben Cachiguango, Frontier

Boys 400: No. 20 Miles Jeffries, Amherst

Boys 400 hurdles: No. 9 Ben Cachiguango, Frontier; No. 28 Ryan Kennedy, Holyoke

Boys 800: No. 25 Nicolas Lisle, Amherst

Boys mile: No. 7 Evan Hedlund, Frontier

Boys 4×800: No. 8 Amherst; No. 25 Frontier

Boys shot put: No. 6 Logan Alfandari, Amherst

Boys pole vault: No. 16 Adrien Pazmandy, Frontier

Boys discus: No. 4 Logan Alfandari, Amherst; No. 20 Moniha Krouch, Amherst

Boys shot put wheelchair: No. 2 Angel Hernandez Castro, Amherst

Ryan Ames is a sports reporter at the Gazette. A UMass Amherst graduate, he covers high school and college sports and is on the UMass hockey beat. Reach him at rames@gazettenet.com and follow him on Twitter/X...