Seven different Gazette schools will travel to Fort Devens this weekend to compete in the MIAA Cross Country State Championships.

Three different divisions will race on Saturday, with the Division 3 race slated first, followed by Division 1 and ending with Division 2. The Division 3 boys race will start at 11 a.m. followed by the Division 3 girls at 11:45 a.m, and the award ceremony for Division 3 will be at 12:45.

No local teams are racing in the Division 1 races, so the next local athletes will race in the boys Division 2 race, scheduled to start at 2 p.m. The girls race will follow at 2:45 p.m. with the award ceremony concluding the day at 3:45 p.m.

Five schools – Amherst, Belchertown, Frontier, Hampshire, and PVCICS – qualified full teams for the boys races, with four girls teams – Amherst, Northampton, Hampshire and Frontier – competing as a full roster. Six individuals – Northampton’s Teddy King-Pollet and Davis Wheat, Belchertown’s Cameron Ting and Kami Wlodyka and Granby’s Nathan Hutchinson and Addison Hill – all qualified to compete based on their performances at the divisional meet last week.

Hampshire’s Kathleen Barry (fifth place 3B), Frontier’s Evan Hedlund (fifth place 3B) and Luke Howard (eighth place 3B) and Northampton’s Teddy King-Pollet (ninth, 2B) and Maeve O’Neil (fifth, 2B) are all favorites for podium finishes, placing in the top 10 of their respective races last week. O’Neil’s younger sister, Mairead, is also a contender as she placed just outside the top 10 with an 11th place finish in the 2B race.

The Hampshire boys had the highest team finish of any school last weekend, placing second overall in the 3B race and will look to be near the top again this weekend. The Northampton girls group will be aiming high as well – the Blue Devils placed third as a group last week (and missed second by just three points). The Amherst girls team may also be in the mix – despite earning a wildcard spot last week, they were missing their No. 2 runner who they’ll have back for states, giving them important depth that should help them compete well.

One other notable team present is the PVCICS boys team, who snuck in with a seventh-place finish in the 3C race by a mere four points over eighth-place Ayer Shirley to earn the final automatic qualifying bid. It’s the first time that the Dragons have sent any team to the MIAA state championships since the school joined the MIAA in 2021.

Division II

AMHERST BOYS: Elias Katsaros, Will Larson, Nico Lisle, Calvin Miller, Yoh Morita, Davis Pinero-Jacome, Owen Platt, Alden Pope, Sam Woodruff, Kyle Yanko

AMHERST GIRLS: Isla Cusick, Felix Goeckel, Claire Kennedy, Addie Mager, Brooke Nedeau, Lillian Pope, Elizabeth Sawicki, Maya Tkachenko Coggeshall, Ava Zimmerman, Eliza Zimmermann

NORTHAMPTON BOYS: Thedore King-Pollet, Davis Wheat

NORTHAMPTON GIRLS: Xiaohan Brunton, Zoe Engel, Tess Geis-Benton, Lily Green, Sarah Molnar, Maeve O’Neil, Mairead O’Neil, Charlotte Shimpach, Summer Sorensen, Ursula von Goeler

Division 3

BELCHERTOWN BOYS: Tyler Benedetti, Nathan Fernandes, Derek Gould, Ryan Gould, Trent Harper, Liam Howard, Benjamin Les, Noah Les, Miles McNamara, Ty O’Donnell

BELCHERTOWN GIRLS: Cameron Ting, Kami Wlodyka

FRONTIER BOYS: Oliver Brown, Brendan Carey, Charles Dennis, AJ Desmond, Evan Hedlund, Luke Howard, Caleb Libbey, Amory Maxey, Leland Murphy, Adam Paul

FRONTIER GIRLS: Mary Burt, Liv Christensen, Maia Christensen, Sylvie DiBartolomeo, Leah Gump, Sasha Malo, Una Millette, Kiera Nugent, Nicole Plasse, Phoebe Radner

GRANBY BOYS: Nathan Hutchinson

GRANBY GIRLS: Addison Hill

HAMPSHIRE BOYS: Nick Brisson, Tim Cahill, Aidan Conklin, Owen Cubi, Gavin DaFonte, Nicholas Elias-Gillette, Oscar Schiff, Zach Jones, Jack Laliberte, Adam Muller

HAMPSHIRE GIRLS: Kathleen Barry, Keegan Butler, Sicily Chase, Talia Craig, Natalie Dunlap, Alexandra Henrichon, Amelia Perry, Kaylee Rooney, Lucy Skawski, Estella Steffenhagen

PVCICS BOYS: RJ Allen, Owen Bauman, Ayden Klatte, Kristof Knyt, Thomas Nuesslein, Alexander Rachele, Frank Sup, Asa Taggert, Grafton Tolopko, Gaius Turner