The Western Massachusetts Track & Field Championship could not have fallen on a better day.

The meet, which is Saturday at Westfield State University, is two days after the seniors at Northampton finished school.

What a relief.

"It's going to be nice to just focus on just track," Hamp senior Phoebe Hopkins said. "For so many years, it was a whole host of things that we had to worry about. Now we can just hone in on western Mass."

The Blue Devils' quest for a third straight sectional title will rest in the hands and feet of their seniors.

"I think we look to our seniors and see how they perform," coach Nate Kraft said. "We have lot of youth on this team. We only had one junior who qualified for western Mass. this year so it's a relatively young group competing. The seniors are going to be key to our performance."

Last year's team was driven by its senior class. Hopkins was a key performer for that team, but this season has been different.

"You really start to understand how tough it is and how much you really have to work for it as a senior," she said. "I feel when you're younger and on a team that is already good you feel like it's going to keep happening, but as a senior you start to get that it's really difficult to keep the momentum and keep winning, and to win championships especially is very difficult."

Like the previous two years, Northampton is going in fresh. The Blue Devils mixed up their lineup at last weekend's Division 1 championship, holding their top athletes out of the events they will compete in this Saturday.

"That's what we've done the last couple years and it's just these past couple years we've been fortunate to win when we've done that," Kraft said. "For those who get to All-States, it's tough to run the same race three weekends in a row."

The Blue Devils have a pair of top individual seeds.

Sophomore Mia Toffoli is the top seed in the 400 in 57.98 seconds.

Sophomore Adrienne Pascucci is first in the 400 hurdles (66.52) with Hopkins in second (66.78).

East Longmeadow and Ludlow should also contend for the title. If the meet comes down to relays the Blue Devils have one of the best. Hamp's 4x400 relay team has the top seed at 4:03.17. Four runners from the group of Hopkins, Emma Larson, Pascucci, Toffoli, Anna Moore and Khaila Ramirez will run the 4x400.

"They will be looked at as the favorite on Saturday and they're ready for that," Kraft said. "They'll be ready to handle that. We've run a number of different combinations of teams that could be in the top 10 in the state right now, which is a good flexibility to have."

Boys championship

A number of teams should be in contention for the boys title.

Northampton, which earned a share of the 2010 title with Longmeadow, join Amherst Regional, Holyoke, West Springfield, Central, Longmeadow and Mahar as teams with a shot at the championship.

"It could be six different teams within 10 points of one another," Hamp coach Jim Clayton said.

Ian Lutz of Northampton is seeded first in the 2-mile (9:40.29). Alex Sullivan is second (1:56.89) in the 800.

The Blue Devils' 4x100 relay is ninth, the 4x400 team is third and the 4x800 relay is fourth.

Amherst is led by Tchuijo Nkamebo, who is first in the triple jump (46-10) and second in the 200 (22.49).

The Hurricanes' 4x100 relay is second in 44.47 while John Latour is first in the discus in 137-9.

Races to watch

The girls 100 dash and the boys 800 shape up to be thrilling races.

Brianna Tabin of South Hadley is the top seed in the 100 dash in 12.55 seconds. Kalli Arbour of Monson is second in 12.74. Four other sprinters have seed times faster than 13 seconds.

Jon Horstman of South Hadley is the top seed and defending champion in the 800. Sullivan finished fourth in the event last year and should challenge the Tiger senior. Horstman is seeded in 1:56.20, just 0.69 seconds ahead of Sullivan.

Top local athletes

Madison Granger of Belchertown is the top seed in the girls mile in 5:08.54.

Seventh-grader Katherine Miner of Frontier Regional is second in the high jump (5-3).

Hailey Cox of Holyoke Catholic is first in the triple jump in 36-4½.

Tilly Taylor of Frontier Regional the defending champ in the javelin and seeded first in 122-9.

Wes Calhoun of South Hadley is first in the boys long jump (21-10¾).

NOTE: There was a format change in the event. In the past, the top six finishers scored points. This year, the top eight will be scored on a 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1 basis.

This change puts the sectional meet in line with All-States and New Englands.

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