WESTFIELD — The Amherst Regional girls cross country team’s day almost ended before it even began on Sunday afternoon.

The Hurricanes were awaiting a bus to pick them up at the school and take them to Stanley Park in Westfield for the Western Mass. Class A Championships, but the bus never came. In a panic, members of the Amherst team hopped in cars and followed one another to the course.

Everything worked out just fine, as the ‘Canes dominated the top 15 with all seven finishers cracking that mark en route to their third consecutive sectional crown on Sunday.

“This team has worked really, really hard together all season,” Amherst co-head coach Elena Betke-Brunswick said. “The team energy, they were psyched for today. I have never seen a varsity team so excited. They worked hard and they stuck together. That stood out to me.”

Genevieve Dole led the way with a sixth-place finish in a time of 20 minutes, 3.14 seconds on the 5K course, and teammate Brooke Nedeau (20:03.63) was right behind in seventh. Felix Goeckel (10th, 20:32.71), Elizabeth Sawicki (12th, 20:43.34), Marit McDonald (13th, 20:43.54), Skylar Fox (14th, 20:45.87) and Lilly Pope (15th, 20:50.28) all broke the 21-minute plateau as they came in one after another in an assembly-line style finish.

Pack running has been Amherst’s strength all year, and it was on full display as it helped propel them to the top at Stanley Park.

“[Our pack running carried us], we work really well together,” Nedeau, a senior, said. “Whenever one of us is having a hard race, there’s always someone from our team near us that we can work off of. It’s so helpful. The team is so cohesive this year.”

“This year, to see how much we’ve grown as a team, it’s amazing,” Sawicki, another senior, added. “We were comparing from results last year, and we only had one person under 21 minutes. Everybody was under 21 this year, which is insane.”

Northampton finished in second as a team with 54 points, six behind Amherst’s 48. Maeve O’Neil led the way for the Blue Devils, coming just steps away from taking first place overall. O’Neil finished second with a time of 18:39.07, just 0.34 behind Westfield’s Megan Moran for first.

Mairead O’Neil (fourth, 18:59.59), Charlotte Shimpach (11th, 20:39.75), Tess Geis-Benton (19th, 21:08.15) and Zea Meerbergen (20th, 21:09.26) were key contributors for Northampton as well.

Minnechaug (84 points), Longmeadow (127 points) and Ludlow (147 points) rounded out the top five while Granby (151 points) closed out local teams with a sixth-place finish. The Rams were led by Addison Hill (eighth, 10:10.91), Grace Cooney (18th, 21:06.98) and Quinn Cook (24th, 22:03.09).

On the boys side, Longmeadow ran away with the title with ease. The Lancers finished first with 28 points. Amherst was next closest, the ‘Canes grabbing second thanks to 59 points. Northampton (131 points) finished fifth and Granby (236 points) finished seventh.

Top 25 local individuals in the Class A boys race included Amherst’s Calvin Miller (third, 16:13.59), Amherst’s Nico Lisle (eighth, 16:32.61), Granby’s Nathan Hutchinson (10th, 16:37.04), Amherst’s Samuel Woodruff (15th, 17:01.40), Amherst’s Alden Pope (16th, 17:09.89), Amherst’s Peter Nedeau (17th, 17:11.03), Amherst’s Myles Redington (19th, 17:15.77), Northampton’s Henry Daggett (20th, 17:19.56), Granby’s Trevor Sullivan (22nd, 17:29.06) and Northampton’s Gus Frey (25th, 17:37.00).

Miller was just .08 seconds behind Longmeadow’s Spence Deliso for second place, but after taking three days off due to an ankle injury, he was happy with his performance on Sunday.

“I felt like I had a good race,” Miller said. “I’ve been dealing with a slight injury. Not that I couldn’t run or anything, but I took the past three days off to make sure it was OK. I raced pretty good. I was definitely well-rested. I stuck with the group in the front the whole time. I’d say it was a pretty good race. I think my whole team did well.”