At last fall’s Western Mass. Division I championships, Amherst girls cross country barely edged Northampton by three points to win the sectional title. 

Three weeks later at the MIAA Division 2 championships, the Northampton girls blazed past Amherst for a third-place finish, the best mark in school history.

With both teams bringing back cores of young scoring runners, this year’s competition looks like it’ll be tightly contested yet again as the two programs battle it out to be the top team in Hampshire County. The ‘Canes and the Blue Devils opened the season against each other on Sept. 3 and Amherst won both boys and girls races, though both teams were missing high-scoring runners. Come October, both teams hope to be at full strength.

“They’re eyeing the end of the season,” Northampton girls cross country head coach Linda Rowbotham said. “Their goal and how we’re training and planning is more there and not necessarily getting too worried about dual and league. We want to keep everyone healthy and have them trained appropriately so that we have them for the long haul.”

In last October’s western Mass. meet, Northampton placed four runners in the top 10 scorers – Maeve O’Neil in fourth, Mairead O’Neil in seventh, Tess Geis-Benton in 10th and Charlotte Shimpach in 11th. But Amherst fit all five of their scorers into the top 16 to win 56-59. Elizabeth Sawicki led the way in fifth, Isla Cusick took eighth, Maya Tkachenko Coggeshall-Burr was 15th, Lily Pope was 16th and Felix Goeckel was 17th. None of those nine runners graduated last spring.

Returning Daily Hampshire Gazette Cross Country Athlete of the Year Maeve O’Neil is now heading into her senior year at Northampton. She’s looking to improve on her 11th place finish from states last November.

“She truly is the leader of the team, in terms of being the lead captain,” Rowbotham said. “She’s really grown into that role. As a freshman, she would have never, ever wanted that position and now she does it without any effort.”

Geis-Benton and Zoe Engel join her as captains, and her sophomore sister Mairead was close behind her at states, finishing 22nd. 

In the Sept. 3 meet, Maeve was out sick, and Mairead placed first. But the following six runners were all ‘Canes, and Amherst hopes that its new runners can pair with its returners to continue the hot start into the rest of the season.

“They’ve got some new, young runners who are just out there going for it,” Amherst boys coach Chris Gould said.

On the boys side, Amherst placed third and Northampton placed fifth at the western Mass. Class A championships. The ‘Canes placed eighth at states, led by a 36th-place finish from Will Larson, who graduated in the spring. But right behind Larson was freshman Calvin Miller, who’s looking to improve on his 53rd-place mark from a year ago. In the Sept. 3 meet against Northampton, he took first place by 22 seconds.

“He’s an excellent model for a lot of other people,” Gould said. “...We’re very hopeful that he’s got some good seasons ahead of him. He’s a special one.”

Daily Hampshire Gazette Indoor Track Athlete of the Year Nico Lisle took second place on Sept. 3. He’s coming off a state title as part of Amherst’s 4x800 indoor squad and Gould said he’s been “very impressed” by how Lisle has been stretching out this fall.

The Northampton boys lost western Mass. runner-up Teddy King-Pollet to graduation, but sophomore Gus Frey has emerged as the Blue Devils top runner through the early-going and placed third against Amherst on Sept. 3.

Elsewhere in Hampshire County…

Hampshire Regional placed its boys team in third and its girls team in fourth at the western Mass. Class B championships last fall. At the MIAA Division 3 Championships, the girls placed ninth and the boys placed 10th – both were the top finishes for Hampshire County teams.

Eight of the top 10 runners on the girls team return, led by Kathleen Barry (third place at western Mass. last year) and Alex Henrichon. Keegan Butler, Amelia Perry, and Natalie Dunlap are all experienced runners and Charlotte Niswonger has been a “welcome addition,” longtime coach Sue Tracy said.

The boys team graduated 10 seniors from a group that went 17-0 with a Pioneer South League championship last year. Jack Laliberte, Oscar Schiff, Aidan Conklin and Nick Jones have looked strong in preseason.

Frontier placed third at last year’s western Mass. Class B championships on the girls side, led by a sixth-place finish from Leah Gump and an eighth-place finish from Sylvie DiBartolomeo. The girls also won their league with a 14-0 overall mark. Though they some “excellent” lost runners to graduation, longtime coaches Bob Smith and Walt Flynn said they’re excited about the young group of runners they have this year.

The boys placed fifth, thanks to a second-place finish from Evan Hedlund and a sixth-place finish from Luke Howard. At Division 3 states, the girls placed 18th and the boys placed 16th.

Belchertown scored a fourth-place western Mass. finish on the boys side last year and a ninth-place mark on the girls side, led by runner-up Kami Wlodyka. Aubrey Harrington, Kylie Fitzgerald, Katherine Dorman will be the Orioles’ girls runners to watch this season after Wlodyka’s graduation. The boys team, led by Ben Les, Noan Les, Miles McNamara, Liam Howard, Emmett Howard, Tyler Benedetti and Cian Lindsay will look to qualify for states for the fourth year in a row.

PVCICS sophomores Grafton Tolopko and Kristof Knyt each put in about 350 miles this summer and are looking to improve on the Dragons’ eighth place finish at western Mass. a year ago. On the girls team, Ella Maier and Astrid Knyt also put in hundreds of miles of work over the summer and hope to better their seventh place finish at last year’s western Mass. championships. Sarah Fardal won the team’s first race of the season and continues to lead the way.

Granby captains Nathan Benson and Nathan Hutchinson put up PVIAC All-Star campaigns a year ago. The girls team continues to grow, led by Addison Hill, Grace Cooney, Josie Curran and Quinlin Cook. The Rams co-op with South Hadley.

Gateway returns senior Jesse Balboni and added three more runners to its boys team. Sophomore Anya Niles leads a girls team with a strong contingent of middle school runners. At last year’s western Mass. championships, the girls placed 15th and the boys placed 19th.

Easthampton rosters five seniors on its girls team – Branch Sullivan, Sophie Slaghekke, Molly Marsh, Julianne Markee and Grace Pappadellis. While the boys team is young, senior Roman Powers-Moran is heading into his second year on the team, and head coach Lisa Ritchie said she’s excited to see his progress this fall. The Eagles boys placed 15th and the girls placed 20th at last year’s western Mass. championships.