PITTSFIELD - The progressive rise to the top for the Northampton boys and girls cross country teams reached its zenith Saturday.

The Blue Devils dominated the field at Berkshire Community College and each team took home their first Division 1 title at the Western Massachusetts Championships.

"It's a special day for Northampton cross country," girls coach Nate Kraft said. "We had a really great day."

The Blue Devil girls placed five runners in the top 20 as they ended Amherst Regional's 15-year winning streak. Northampton is only the fourth team to win a Division 1 title since the race was created in 1988.

The Blue Devils had 72 points. Amherst was second with 130 while Belchertown (132) won the tiebreaker with Ludlow (132) to finish third and advance to the state meet.

"Amherst is a program that you want to be like," Kraft said. "Just to be able to say we beat Amherst is hard to imagine because I have so much respect for that program and everything they've done over the past 20 years. It took a team effort to do it."

The Northampton boys took three of the top four places, four of the top eight and five in the top 12 to finish with 27 points. Amherst was second with 102 and Holyoke placed third at 127.

"It's amazing," said Blue Devils senior Harrison Hunter, who placed first overall in 16 minutes, 25.92 seconds on a 3.1-mile course. "First team title ever. Great day for everyone on the team. I ran the race I wanted to. It was amazing all around."

Northampton's performance can only be rivaled by Amherst's in 2002, when the Hurricane boys won with 28 points and the girls set a record with 17.

"We're all ecstatic," Blue Devils boys coach Ross Krause said. "Myself, coach Kraft and coach (Jim) Clayton for both teams. For both teams to do it on the same day is amazing."

Division 1 girls

Senior Haley Milsark took control for Northampton at the start and finished ninth in 20:23.52. Milsark was a freshman when the Blue Devils qualified for the state meet for the first time.

"I'm so excited," Milsark said. "We've come so far."

Sophomore Eliana Zimmerman was 12th in 20:38.03, sophomore Mia Toffoli finished 15th in 21:00.72 and sophomore Emma West placed 16th in 21:04.28. Senior Emma Larson was 20th in 21:12.09 to round out the top five for Northampton.

"A lot of people were happy to see an end to such a long reign but Amherst had good sportsmanship about it," Zimmerman said. "They came over and congratulated us."

The Blue Devils now hold the sectional titles in cross country and indoor and outdoor track.

"It feels really great," Toffoli said. "We have such a solid team just to know that we can go through and win western Mass. cross country, then indoor and outdoor. I feel so happy to be a part of it."

Amherst junior Audrey Gould placed eighth in 20:23.23 despite reinjuring her ankle before the race, then falling twice.

"Racing physically for me has never been a problem," Gould said. "It's really mentally and trying to get myself to push myself. It was a good test today. I had to keep telling myself to ignore everything that happened."

Emily Zimmerman, no relation to Eliana, was 13th in 20:49.22 for Amherst. Sisters Kate O'Brien (33rd) and Rachel O'Brien (37th), and Kathryn Hopkins-McGill (39th) filled out the top five for the Hurricanes.

"I know they'll be motivated and excited to do the work over the summer to come back and try to knock off Northampton," Amherst coach Eric Nazar said. "It's a team race and Hamp understood that. That's why they won."

Belchertown had three in the top 11, which no other team could match. Madison Granger was second in 19:22.56, behind only Camile Blackman of Longmeadow (18:59.92). Savannah Bernardin was 10th in 20:26.77 for the Orioles, followed by Taylor Lewis in 11th at 20:34.22.

Granger had a tough week leading into the sectional meet. She collapsed with ¼ mile remaining at the PVIAC Championships on Nov. 6 and was taken by ambulance to Baystate Medical Center in Springfield.

Granger, who has a dopamine deficiency, visited a specialist in New York City on Tuesday and Wednesday and was cleared to run.

"I didn't have a strong finish but I made it across the line and I'm so happy I did because we made states," Granger said. "We are so incredible thrilled we made states. It was a good day for everyone."

South Hadley 8th-grader Caroline Sullivan made her debut and was sixth in 20:18.79. Sullivan, who set four course records during the season, fought through a hip injury.

"After my injury my goals didn't change, but I still felt I could try my best and be able to run," Sullivan said.

Division 1 boys

The Blue Devils made their presence felt at the midpoint of the race when they held four of the top five places.

"We knew it was going to go out fast and there were a lot of kids who could win the race," said Northampton junior Alex Sullivan, who was second in 16:28.55. "We tried to get out there in front and we did that. We wanted to control the race."

Junior rookie Sam Coates-Finke was fourth in 16:34.04 for the Blue Devils, while sophomore rookie Sam Shanky was eighth in 16:41.28.

"Second mile we planned on each taking it for a quarter mile - that way we were all up there," Coates-Finke said. "Third mile we were all competing for the win so we were duking it out."

Defending individual champ Ian Lutz was 12th in 16:53.39 to finish the scoring for Northampton.

"Of course you'd like to be (first) but if we're winning with 27 points and doing really well I'm fine with it," Lutz said. "As long as the team is getting our due. We've never done this. To have the guys and girls do it today is great."

When the Blue Devils placed third last year there was too much time and too many runners in between their top finishers.

"We had Ian in front and there was a big gap to the rest of us," Hunter said. "This year we worked hard to close that gap. That's made a huge difference for the team. We trained together, pushing each other."

The Hurricanes' five runners finished between 16th and 26th.

"Coming into a meet like this we have nothing to lose except maybe try and scare (Hamp) for a while," Amherst coach Chris Gould said. "And we didn't do that. We know what they're bringing. They put six in front of our first. That's a tough team. They deserve what they're getting."

Ian Davies was 16th in 17:07.37 for the Hurricanes, with James Traester 18th in 17:11.37, Dylan Wight 20th in 17:15.37, Nick Benfey 22nd in 17:22.10 and Jesse Coull 26th in 17:35.17.

"We weren't quite working together like we normally do," Davies said. "Things didn't fall the way we wanted to."

Mike Moran can be reached at mmoran@gazettenet.com.