The Hampshire Regional boys and girls cross country teams ran away from the competition — literally — during the 2024 season.
Hampshire had just one loss during its regular season between both squads (34-1 record), then continued its excellence into the postseason meets. The boys won the Western Mass. Class B meet, before taking top-five finishes in the Division 3 sectional meet (second) and the Div. 3 state meet (fifth). The girls grabbed runner-up honors during Western Mass. and Div. 3 sectionals, prior to an 11th-place finish at the state meet.
What should scare surrounding programs is the fact that not only are the Raiders returning a plethora of runners this season, they’re also integrating a large contingent of young athletes into a program that seems to ooze success.
“Last year’s Western Mass. champions only lost one scoring runner to graduation,” Hampshire head coach Sue Tracy (17th season) said about the boys team. “[We] are aiming for a return to the podium this season and hope to move up in the state standings.”
Senior Oscar Schiff and junior Owen Cubi, who each earned top-40 finishes during last year’s state meet, will be the Raiders top two runners again this fall. Senior Augustus Niswonger and sophomore Hobbes O’Sullivan will likely battle for the all-important fifth-runner slot for Hampshire, behind juniors Aidan Conklin and Sam Plumer.
“Oscar Schiff and Owen Cubi put in many summer miles and Augustus Niswonger and Hobbes O’Sullivan are looking strong in the pre-season,” Tracy said. “Aidan Conklin, Nick Jones, and Sam Plumer bring an abundance of experience to the team.”
Jones joins Schiff and Niswonger as the Raiders’ senior class on the boys side. Fifteen runners from eighth-grade or younger will also debut for Tracy’s crew this fall.
“With a huge number of young runners coming on board, the team is also building for the future,” Tracy said.
On the girls side, the story is much the same as Hampshire is filled to the brim with returning talent, most notably, in junior Kathleen Barry.
“Western Mass. runner-up and state medalist Kathleen Barry is coming off a solid summer of training and Ada Corner, Charlotte Niswonger, and Alex Henrichon look strong in the pre-season,” Tracy said.
Barry snagged 13th place during the last year’s Div. 3 state meet and was the only Raider who cracked the top-70. Although, all but one of Hampshire’s five scorers were underclassmen, so it’s young core is only going to improve.
“The experience of all our long-time veterans will be invaluable in integrating and leading our many newcomers in a bid for the Western Mass title and return to the state top 10,” Tracy said. “The team is returning all of its top runners and has some talented new additions, so this year looks very promising.”
Of the newcomers, Tracy pointed to sophomores Brooke Hockenberry and Charlotte Letendre as runners who have made an impression early on.
The Raiders’ boys and girls teams will now compete in the Pioneer League North Division with Frontier Regional, PVCICS, Mohawk Trail, Belchertown, Southwick, Pope Francis and Greenfield.
Both teams won Pioneer League South titles last year.
Elsewhere in Hampshire County
Northampton and Amherst Regional should be contenders on the course again this year, despite each team losing valuable runners.
The Blue Devils will be paced by twin brothers Henry and Owen Daggett (juniors), while Gus Frey, Xander Lane and Pranav Belur should round out the boys’ top-five. Junior Mairead O’Neil returns as Northampton’s best runner for the girls team, following sister Maeve’s graduation last spring. Mairead was a big part of the Blue Devils’ second-place finish at the Western Mass. Class A meet in 2024, then ran to a 10th-place finish at the divisional meet. Senior Charlotte Shimpach is another runner to watch for Northampton, which will be lead by first-year co-head coaches in Ellen O’Neil and Caroline Clark.
The Hurricanes have high expectations once again, but that isn’t anything new for one of the most decorated programs in the entire state. The boys bring back numerous high-end runners in Nico Lisle, Owen Platt and Peter Nedeau, to name a few, and will look to challenge Longmeadow and Ludlow in the Western Mass. meet come late-October. Amherst also had 18 freshmen come out this season as head coach Chris Gould (31st season) looks to continue to replenish the talent pool.
“The older runners have locked themselves into careful and focused training in order to
extract the best possible result from this year,” Gould said. “They know that Longmeadow and Ludlow always offer credible threats.”
The girls are the three-time defending Western Mass. champions but will have to replace a chunk of their top-five that departed via graduation. Brooke Nedeau, Felix Goeckel and Elizabeth Sawicki are gone, however Genevieve Dole and Marit McDonald (sophomores) should ease the transition as two of Amherst’s steady point-getters. Co-head coaches Elena Betke-Brunswick and Ron Jacobs will lead the ‘Canes.
Northampton and Amherst are both competing in the Valley League North Division.
Frontier should be in the conversation for some hardware, particularly in the Western Mass. Class B competition. Luke Howard and Evan Hedlund will have a huge say in how far the Redhawks boys team goes as both rejoin the team this season after earning All-State status last year as a junior and sophomore, respectively. Walt Flynn is in charge of the Frontier boys, as he has been for the past 32 years. The girls put together a fabulous campaign a year ago, running to an undefeated regular-season record (14-0), then top-10 team finishes in both the Div. 3 sectional and all-state meets. Head coach Bob Smith (47th season) is confident, yet grounded in his group of Redhawks this season.
“We really lost some excellent runners to graduation, but have a good group of returners, ” Smith said. “Liv Christensen, Maia Christensen, Maddie Antes, Phoebe Radner and newcomer Louise Flagollet will be the core of the team. We are very young, so we have a lot of work in front of us, but attitude is good, effort is good.”
Belchertown will look to see improvement from its girls team that went winless last year, as well as continued progression from its boys team that still features young talent throughout. Senior Molly Mazzaferro and sophomores Kylie Fitzgerald and Serena Jones will be ones to watch for Kyle Underwood’s (first year) Orioles’ girls team, while juniors Cían Lindsay and Emmett Howard and seniors Miles McNamara and Ryan Gould will spearhead William Wheeler’s boys team.
Hopkins Academy has a small, but plucky bunch with head coach Jeff Mish at the helm for his 12th season. Senior Caprial DiBartolomeo and freshman Deegan Austin-Dietz will be two runners to keep an eye on for the Golden Hawks as DiBartolomeo was their top girls finisher all year long in 2024, while Austin-Dietz is already in “excellent condition,” per Mish.
Easthampton will have one of the youngest rosters in the area, however head coach Lisa Ritchie is assured in her Eagles. William Jourdain (10th grade), Gwen Banz (ninth) and Amelia Dodge (eighth) are some of Easthampton’s polished returners, but newcomers Otto Koen (10th), Otto Ewing (eighth), Finley Foster (ninth) and Alex Damours (11th) will look to make an impact. The Eagles slotted into the Pioneer South Division alongside local programs Granby and Gateway.
Gateway will be a program to keep track off, particularly on the girls side, as all five of the Gators best runners came back this fall. Anya Niles, Ava Christie, Laurel DeMoss, Lily Peloquin, Nora Peloquin, plus Autumn Clark, should put Gateway in great position to replicate its 12-2 record from last season. Denae Dostal is the girls head coach (10th season), while Meredith McGowan takes over the boys team.
Smith Vocational’s Sicily Chase (senior) will look to guide the Vikings through a rebuilding year. Smith Voc had its best record ever last fall, going 9-6, but head coach Josh Shearer (10th season) is expecting the Vikings to take a step back this year, simply because much of the roster was in flux to begin the season.
PVCICS strives for improved finishes at this year’s Western Mass. Class B meet. The Dragons took seventh place (boys) and sixth place (girls) last season at Stanley Park in Westfield.
Granby head coach Tanner Wenzel will shepherd the Rams into the Pioneer South, which features respectable competition throughout.