AMHERST — Sophia Jacobs-Townsley’s emergence as Amherst Regional’s top runner continued Wednesday.
Jacobs-Townsley placed first in the 1- and 2-mile as the Hurricanes defeated rival Northampton, 78-67.
The freshman finished the 2-mile in 11 minutes, 58.5 seconds, well ahead of Northampton’s Leila Markosian (12:11.2).
The mile was much closer. Jacobs-Townsley just edged Hamp’s Stephanie Jordan by less than a tenth of a second. Both finished at 5:40.1 but first place was given to Jacobs-Townsley.
“I feel like personally I did OK today,” she said. “I did not expect to win the mile.”
Jacobs-Townsley emerged as one of the top long distance runners during the cross country season, winning the Western Massachusetts Division 1 championship. She did not compete in indoor track, choosing to swim for the Hurricanes instead.
She started running in the fifth grade and it has become more of a priority as the years have gone on.
Her plan is to do indoor track next winter.
“I have been swimming for eight years,” Jacobs-Townsley said. “I think it was my last season of swimming just because I am getting more serious about running.”
Jacobs-Townsley’s time on the cross country team has helped her become a better runner in outdoor track.
Swimming added an additional layer of training that has contributed to her spring success.
“For me, training year-round is really helpful, if I didn’t train year-round it would probably not work out as well,” Jacobs-Townsely said. “If you do two seasons like I do, in the winter, along with swimming, I was training four times a week.”
During the outdoor season, a lot of the preparation for meets is put in the hands of the coaches. But according to Jacobs-Townsley there is still a level personal responsibility that goes into preparing and getting better.
“What you put into practice sort of affects what you get out of it,” Jacobs-Townsley said. “You just have to try hard in the workouts and you have to let yourself take easy days.”
For Jacobs-Townsley, her primary goal is always to get faster — more specifically in the mile.
The mile is an event she has not done much of in the past.
“I think she’ll thrive once we are able to get more rest and give her a chance to do some really focused training,” Amherst coach Chris Gould said.
In Wednesday’s meet, Gould wanted to make sure the Hurricanes did not overwork themselves. The ’Canes competed against East Longmeadow on Monday and have the Steele Relays this Saturday at West Springfield.
“I think it is really trying to walk that fine line between trying to be competitive and get appropriate work in,” Gould said. “You know I want our team to compete when we have a meet and to pay attention to what’s going on. I think it is more exciting for them to say, you know I’m just not going to jog through events. I’m going to do what I need to do and try to run hard and in many cases as you saw people were running hard all the way through because they needed to do it.”
In Wednesday’s meet, Amherst’s Ariel Christie (16.3 seconds) beat Sierra Loomis (16.6) in the 100-meter hurdles.
In the 100 dash, Northampton’s Emma Harder (12.9) edged Amina Torres (13.2).