Amherst Girls Win Third Consecutive Western Mass Cross Country Title

The Amherst Regional High School girls’ cross country team won the Western Massachusetts Division 1 Cross Country Championship at Stanley Park in Westfield on Sunday (10/26), finishing first among 12 teams with 48 points. Local rival Northampton was second with 54 points and Minnechaug Regional was third with 84 points.  It was the third Western Mass Title in a row for the Hurricanes, and the 28^th in the last 35 years (with no race run in pandemic year 2020).

Senior Megan Moran of Westfield was the individual champion, covering the 5k course in a time of 18:39.07.

Amherst placed all of its seven runners in the top 15 and was led by Freshman Genevieve Dole who finished sixth, in 20:03.14. Other Amherst scorers were Brooke Nedeau (7^th), 20:03.63; Felix Goeckel (10^th), 20:30.71; Elizabeth Sawicki (12^th), 20:43.34; and Marit MacDonald (13^th), 20:43.54. Also finishing for Amherst were Skylar Fox (14^th), 20:45.87; and Lily Pope (15^th), 20:58.28.  View full results here.

Dole said, “It was a lot of fun! I looked back after I finished and the whole team was right behind me. Everybody is really excited  for Divisionals.”

Amherst Coach Ron Jacobs added, “We have been really impressed all year with how well we are running as a pack. It’s been a long time since we had so much depth on the team. We had a 40 second spread between our top five runners, and only a 47 second spread between our top 7 runners. This is how you win championships. We are looking forward to the post-season, confident that we can compete against any team in the state.”

The girls will compete in the division 2B, West/Central state championship meet qualifier at Fort Devins on Saturday November 9 at 12:30 p.m. The top seven teams from this race will qualify for the Division 2 state championship meet, which will be run at Fort Devens on November 16. Amherst has qualified for the state championship meet for 33 consecutive years (excluding pandemic year 2020 when no competitions were held), a record for girls’ high school cross country teams in Massachusetts.

Amherst Boys Place Second
The Amherst Boys placed second with 59 points behind meet champion Longmeadow with 28 points.  Ludlow finished third with 69 points. Senior Joseph Keroack of Ludlow captured the individual title, completing the 5k course in 15:35.62. Leading Amherst was Sophomore Calvin Miller who finished third in 16:13.59.  Also scoring for Amherst were Nico Lisle (8^th), 16:32.61; Samuel Woodfuff (15^th), 17:01.40;  Aiden Pope (16^th), 17:09.89; and Peter Nedeau (17^th), 17:11.03. Also finishing for Amherst were Myles Redington (19^th) 17:09.77; and Owen Platt (26^th), 17:42.40.  View complete results here.

The boys will also complete in the Division 2B State Meet qualifier next Saturday.