The Belchertown boys cross country season has started the same way for a number of years now.
Head coach Bill Wheeler, who’s been with the team now for more than a decade, lines them up at the starting line of their home course at Foley Field for a two-mile time trial. It’s standard practice for the runners – a way to keep them accountable as they build up their mileage over the summer.
He wasn’t surprised when the first two runners crossed the line. Twins Trevor and Brandon Adamson, the team’s two best runners, were a good minute or so ahead of the rest of the group. But when the rest of the group came in, Wheeler realized that he and his team might have a special year ahead of them.
The next eight runners all finished within 24 seconds of each other, a feat that Wheeler hadn’t seen before in his 11 years of coaching.
“This is the deepest team I’ve ever had,” Wheeler said. “Over the years, we’ve always maybe one guy make states, two guys with a chance. Last year was a good step for this whole team, making states as a team. And I think that really lit a fire under the younger guys.”
Belchertown made history qualifying for states as a squad last year, the first team to do so since the 1980s. They placed 21st as a group – not bad, but not their best. This year, they seem poised to blow that result out of the water.
“There are people who were running basically what they did at the end of track season at the beginning of cross country season, which is crazy,” Ty O’Donnell said on his team’s two-mile time trial results.
They’ve won five dual meets this season, including a close victory over Northampton, a top-tier team that also qualified for states last year and finished seventh overall. That more than anything is a signifier of what this Orioles team is capable of when it’s performing at its best.
“It’s a great step. It’s not about beating the teams, it’s about making our group better as a whole and to make states again,” Brandon Adamson said. “Yes, beating those teams, it’s a fantastic feeling, but there’s always more to work towards.”
Part of that work is refining their strategy. It’s great to have runners who are approximately at the same pace, but figuring out how to utilize everyone’s speed the best is what has allowed Belchertown to achieve its success so far. Trevor and Brandon have a sizable lead on their teammates, so they work together to cross the line as close to first as they can. The next eight to ten runners for the Orioles are able to pack-run together, pushing each other to go faster and, as a result, bringing up the performance of the entire team.
Wheeler never ran cross country himself, but he has watched the Tour de France on television and tries to employ those tactics with his team. He calls it the ‘team time trial,’ and it allows different runners to take the lead of the pack without everyone exhausting themselves during a race. Runners rotate in and out of the first position, ‘pulling’ along the rest of the group, before dropping back and letting someone else take the lead while they rest and recover at the back of the pack.
“At the beginning of the season…. I set up cones and (tell them) every cone, this is where you pull back — it’s hilarious watching them try to do it at first,” Wheeler said, grinning.
Though it took them a while to get the hang of it, the Orioles have it down pat now, and utilize it when they can in meets. So far, it’s paid off in a major way. The team is trying not to get too far ahead of itself, focusing on each individual meet and invitational and working on bettering their times. Wheeler knows it won’t be an easy road ahead, but his team has the potential to qualify for states in back-to-back seasons.
“For us to make states, we’re going to need Trevor and Brandon to go as far up in the standings as they possibly can. And then whoever is running for us from that third to seventh position — they need to pull each other,” Wheeler said. “They need to work like a buzzsaw through the rest of the field. And once they get on to that final half mile at Stanley (Park), they need to pick runners off one by one by one.”
It will be a challenge, but if there’s any team that can pull it off, it’s this year’s Belchertown squad.