DEVENS — Following the Amherst girls cross country team’s Western Massachusetts Class A title two weeks ago at Stanley Park in Westfield (its third in a row), co-head coaches Elena Betke-Brunswick and Ron Jacobs said they felt like they had the team this year to compete at the state level.

And on Saturday afternoon at Fort Devens during the MIAA Division 2B Cross Country Championship, the ‘Canes proved it.

Behind seven finishers in the top 30 and four inside the top 25, Amherst claimed first place in the state qualifier by 10 points with a total of 97. Newburyport (107) grabbed second place while Northampton (108) was right there for third. Danvers (144) and Bedford (144) rounded out the top five.

The Hurricanes will head to the Division 2 State Championship meet next weekend, right back at Fort Devens.

“They all ran really well,” Jacobs said. “They’ve been consistently fantastic all year long, so we weren’t surprised, but the thing that’s been great all year is that if one person has an off day, which happens almost every race, we’ve got so many people who are ready to step up. A bunch of people raced really solid, and the last mile when everybody else was going backwards, we were still fighting.”

Genevieve Dole (13th, 20:52.23) and Marit MacDonald (15th, 21:06.85) were the top runners of the day for Amherst, showing up on the biggest stage they’ve seen despite only being freshmen.

Prior to the meet, senior Brooke Nedeau went up to MacDonald and tried to spark the nervous freshman to come up with her best race of the season on Saturday, telling her, “I want you to beat me today. I want you to go out there and run by me.” MacDonald did just that, turning in a terrific performance to help Amherst to victory.

“It’s a lot of pressure, or it seems to be, but it’s really nice to have that support from the team,” MacDonald said. “It just shows they support us and they know what we can do.”

Skylar Fox (22nd, 21:21.95), Lilly Pope (24th, 21:32.14) and Nedeau (29th, 21:46.77) all recorded points for Amherst while Felix Goeckel (30th, 21:47.09) and Elizabeth Sawicki (31st, 21:48.95) were on their tails.

Jacobs noted that almost every single meet Amherst has a different runner finish first on the team. For every other program, spots are typically designated to certain people. Coaches often know who is going to finish first, second, third and so on for their teams before the race even begins. But for the ‘Canes, they don’t have a set No. 1 runner – it varies.

When someone has a below-average outing, there is always a runner to pick up the slack. Northampton head coach Linda Rowbotham talked about how important it is that Amherst can have all seven of its participants finish in the top 35 or better, because that steals points from other teams vying for the top.

That’s one of the reasons why Betke-Brunswick and Jacobs teach the pack-running strategy at Amherst.

“I just love the way they look for each other, and they sort of feel out where each other are on the course,” Betke-Brunswick said. “They know if someone is falling back or pushing forward a bit, and they adjust from there. It’s really phenomenal awareness and pack running by the team.”

Northampton’s Meave O’Neil ran a near-perfect race for the Blue Devils, crossing the line second in a time of 19:14.54. 

O’Neil has been a staple for Northampton cross country for quite some time now, and as the senior sees the end of her high school career on the horizon, she’s looking forward to taking it all in with now potentially just one meet remaining.

“I thought it was a pretty good race,” O’Neil said. “I felt strong, I didn’t feel like anything went wrong in any way. So I would say it went well… It means a lot to spend time with my team and race people from other teams that I know one last time. It’s sad and I’ll definitely miss them, but I’m excited to move on, too”

Maeve’s sister, Mairead, is one of those people she will certainly miss. Mairead came in 10th on Saturday with a time of 20:29.80. The two led Northampton, as they have done all season long.

“It’s so nice, and I feel so lucky to have my sister on the same team as me,” Maeve O’Neil said. “It means a lot that my whole family is here and I get to have one last cross country season with my sister.”

Charlotte Shimpach (23rd, 21:25.59), Tess Geis-Benton (37th, 22:09.95) and Zea Meerbergen (43rd, 22:23.08) also scored points for the Blue Devils while Eliza LaCroix (48th, 22:44.43) cracked the top 50 and Zoe Engel (83rd, 24:26.17) cracked the top 85.

On the boys side, Amherst’s 148 points were good enough for a podium finish, as the Hurricanes took third place behind Longmeadow (first, 95) and Wakefield (second, 112). Northampton finished 11th with 335 points.

Leading the charge for Amherst was Calvin Miller and Nico Lisle. Both ‘Canes runners battled it out with a pack of Longmeadow runners over the final stretch, and both finished before them en route to 16th- and 17th-place finishes, respectively. Miller – who took some of the week off to nurse a lingering ankle injury – (16:57.83) just barely beat out his teammate, Lisle (16:57.98), who ran a terrific race for Amherst.

“The past few workouts we’ve had I’ve been leading the whole team, without Calvin though because he was injured,” Lisle said. “I just knew that I could give it my all today.”

Peter Nedeau (28th, 17:21.28), Sam Woodruff (35th, 17:34.62) and Myles Redington (52nd, 17:56.96) wrapped up Amherst’s scoring on Saturday.

“We all did pretty well and finished relatively close together,” Miller added. “I heard people cheering for Nico, but I didn’t know how close he was to me. He was right next to me at the end.”

Northampton was hoping to crack the top 10 as a team, but the Blue Devils settled for 11th and are hoping to send a few individuals to next week’s state tournament. Henry Daggett (56th, 17:59.39), Ben Kilip-Leonard (58th, 18:05.21), Owen Daggett (63rd, 18:09.67), Gus Frey (73rd, 18:20.50) and Isaiah Carnevale (85th, 18:31.04) earned points for Northampton.

Div. 3 results

Over at the Div. 3 state qualifier meet at Wrentham Development Center on Saturday, the Frontier boys, Frontier girls, Belchertown boys, Hampshire boys, Hampshire girls, Pioneer Valley Chinese Immersion Charter School (PVCICS) boys and PVCICS girls all clinched spots in the MIAA Div. 3 state meet thanks to top seven finishes in their respective heats. 

There were six heats during Saturday’s race – three boys heats and three girls heats — and the top seven teams in each heat qualified for the MIAA Division 3 Championship next week. The top 10 individual finishers in each heat who weren’t members of those top seven teams also qualified for the state meet as individuals.

On the boys side, Belchertown took seventh in the 3A race, Hampshire took second and Frontier placed third in the 3B race, while PVCICS took sixth in the 3C race.

On the girls side, Hampshire took second in the 3B race while PVCICS came in sixth in the 3C race. 

The Frontier girls clinched with an eighth-place finish, though as the fastest eighth place team in the three heats, were able to advance to states. 

Benjamin Les led the Oriole boys in the 3A race, taking 17th (17:07.37). Noah Les (31st, 17:38.64), MIles McNamara (49th, 17:59.79), Liam Howard (53rd, 18:01.84) and Emmett Howard (59th, 18:11.37) rounded out the scoring for Belchertown. 

In the girls 3A race, the Orioles placed 21st behind Kylie Fitzgerald (88th, 23:29.79), Serena Jones (108th, 24:16.92), Katherine Dorman (117th, 24:43.11), Meru Causeway (121st, 24:58.10) and Aubrey Harrington (129th, 25:24.41). 

The 3B girls race saw the Raiders place an impressive second behind a seventh place individual finish from Kathleen Barry (10:53.91), a 16th place finish from Charlotte Niswonger (20:33.17), a 21st place finish from Alexandra Henrichon (20:55.78), a 29th place finish from Ada Corner (21:31.31) and a 32nd place finish from Keegan Butler (21:42.23). 

In the 3B boys race, Hampshire was led by Oscar Schiff (ninth, 16:39.58), Owen Cubi (14th, 16:56.54), Aidan Conklin (19th, 17:15.47), Sam Plumer (25th, 17:22.25) and Jack Laliberte (34th, 17:35.62). 

The Frontier boys were led by Evan Hedlund and Luke Howard – Hedlund placing third overall (15 minutes, 56.99 seconds) while Howard took sixth (16:19.30). Oliver Brown took 30th (17:33.50), Hengxi Yue earned 33rd (17:35.45) while Charles Dennis took 45th (17:58.82) to close out the scoring for the Redhawks. 

Theo Wojcik ran for Smith Vocational in the 3B boys race, placing 68th (18:36.04). 

In the 3C girls race, PVCICS was led by Ellery Maier (26th, 20:55.20), Sarah Fardal (35th, 21:18.29), Eunice Lo (39th, 21:25.72), Astrid Knyt (45th, 21:47.21) and Emma Vasovic (49th, 21:55.97). 

Sylvie DiBartolomeo placed sixth overall (19:32.69) for Frontier while Liv Chrisensen (38th, 21:24.34), Perla Ordaz (56th, 22:24.23), Phoebe Radner (59th, 22:34.59) and Maia Christensen (61st, 22:41.36) closed out the scoring for the Redhawks. 

Also in the 3C girls race Granby took 12th, Easthampton placed 13th and Gateway took 18th.

For the Rams, Addison Hill took 13th (20:18.50), Grace Cooney placed 48th (21:51.55), Quinlin Cook earned 52nd (22:05.85), Adelynn Zimmer placed 92nd (24:13.91) and Aurora Lee took 107th (24:59.26). Hill’s time earned her an individual spot at states. 

Easthampton’s Gwen Banz also qualified for states as an individual with a 33rd place finish (21:16.06). Grace Pappadellis (60th, 22:35.33), Amelia Dodge (71st, 23:06.72), Katie Cleland (75th, 23:16.45) and Fern Stauffer (76th, 23:16.99) rounded out the Eagle scorers. 

Anya Niles (58th, 22:33.56), Autumn Clark (101st, 24:39.89), Nora Peloquin (110th, 25:19.84), Laurel DeMoss (115th, 25:43.86) and Charlotte Hansen (118th, 25:56.17) scored for Gateway. 

In the 3C boys race, Grafton Tolopko took 13th (16:38.09), Owen Bauman placed 47th (18:01.76), Kristof Knyt earned 52nd (18:14.23), Asa Taggert took 53rd (18:16.31) and RJ Allen came in 55th (18:19.60) for PVCICS. 

Gateway took 19th behind scoring from Jacob Maynard (58th, 18:23.31), Jeffrey Antonellis (128th, 21:25.70), Steven Savoy (130th, 21:27.84), Jesse Balboni (153rd, 23:14.84) and Jesse Balboni (153rd, 23:14.86). 

Granby did not have enough runners to score as a team, though Nathan Hutchinson (12th, 16:36.90) and Trevor Sullivan (37th, 17:39.04) qualified for states as individuals. 

William Jourdain was the top runner for Easthampton (65th, 18:33.98). 

Hopkins Academy denied chance to run

Hopkins Academy was set to compete in Wrentham on Saturday, but was notified during the week by the MIAA that their registration for the state qualifier was not entered before the deadline. 

The Golden Hawks petitioned to still be able to compete, and made the trip to Wrentham on Saturday. The MIAA ultimately upheld its decision, and eight Golden Hawks were denied the opportunity to run in the meet.