AMHERST — The Amherst cross country teams celebrated Senior Night in dual meets against Ludlow on Tuesday afternoon.
It felt particularly meaningful for the girls team, as the Hurricanes and entire Amherst community lost a member of the Class of 2024 last year. Anna Burns would have been recognized as a senior in what is a special tradition to the Hurricanes cross country program.
“The team has a really profound history, and senior night is a really important tradition to this team,” Amherst co-head coach Elena Betke-Brunswick said. “I think especially, missing Anna who we lost last year, they would be a senior this year. I think that this one feels extra challenging, and also special. We’ve been thinking a lot about Anna.”
Amherst defeated the Lions 15-50 on the girls side, with Elizabeth Sawicki (22:53) and Isla Cusick (22:54) crossing the finish line just one second apart to pace the Hurricanes’ dominant win. Lily Pope (23:13) was close behind for Amherst while Willa Hudson (23:40) and Brooke Nedeau (24:30) rounded out the top five for the Hurricanes.
Betke-Brunswick was pleased to see her team run together throughout the race given the inexperience of a handful of Hurricanes runners. Staying close to one another worked in Amherst’s favor.
“I was really pleased to see our team running in packs,” Betke-Brunswick said. “We’ve been working on building them up together, especially because we have a lot of new runners. I thought they really worked well together today.”
The Hurricanes (7-0) remained undefeated and can claim an outright Valley North league title next Tuesday when they take on rival Northampton. Last year’s race was decided by three points, so it’s very likely this year’s edition will once again come down to the wire. Co-head coach Ron Jacobs said he knows his team will show up prepared and ready to go.
“If we beat Northampton, we win the league title outright,” Jacobs said. “If they beat us, it’s a three-way tie for first at that point – I don’t know how they break that. We’re hoping it won’t come to that. We’ll definitely show up on Tuesday next week ready to race. It should be fun.”
On the boys side, the ‘Canes fell 24-31 to Ludlow in a close race that could have clinched them a share of their league title.
Will Larson’s third-place finish at 17:21 and Calvin Miller’s fifth-place finish at 17:40 were the highlights of Amherst’s race as the Hurricanes continue to deal with some unanswered questions this fall.
“We were underdogs,” Amherst boys coach Chris Gould said. “We’re still not running quite as well as we can run. There are some things that I’m still optimistic about, but it’s just discouraging. We just have a lot of moving parts we’re trying to figure out.”
One of those moving parts is Hurricanes top runner David Pinero-Jacome, who finished third on the team and sixth overall with a time of 17:41. Pinero-Jacome has dealt with lingering injuries forcing him in and out of the lineup. Gould knows that as Pinero-Jacome goes, the team goes, and the coaching staff has arrived at a bit of a crossroads in terms of what the next steps are moving forward.
Pinero-Jacome breezed by everybody in the team’s first home meet, but hasn’t returned to that form due to the injuries.
“It’s tricky to know how to work with him at this point, because I don’t want him to get more hurt,” Gould said of Pinero-Jacome. “I don’t want the season to disappear on him. We’re really just trying to negotiate what we want him to do. It’s discouraging for him, it’s discouraging for all of us. He ran 17:06 here on a tempo run in the first meet of the year, he can run 16:20 on this course, I think. So that’s really hard for him.”
The boys team returns to action next Tuesday as well, also against Northampton (4 p.m.) in what is both teams’ last regular season race of the year.
Belchertown 15, Chicopee 50
Northampton 17, Belchertown 42 — The Orioles had no problem taking care of business in their matchup with Chicopee, as five times under 19 minutes helped earn them the win. Belchertown was led by Nathan Fernandes (18:19), Ben Les (18:23) Derek Gould (18:30), Ty O’Donnell (18:34), and Liam Howard (18:55).
Greenfield 20, Smith Voc 35
Frontier 19, Smith Voc 39
Frontier 25, Greenfield 30 — Frontier’s Evan Hedlund turned in the fastest time of 19:47 to lead all racers, with teammate Charlie Dennis not too far behind in second place with a 19:57.
Smith Voc’s top runner was Patrick Millin, who crossed the line at 20:03 to pace the Vikings.
PVCICS 19, McCann 43
PVCICS 16, Easthampton 45
McCann 38, Easthampton 41 — Grafton Tolopko was the fastest to participate in Tuesday’s race, as he dashed over the finish line in 18:39 to help the Dragons to two wins.
Owen Bauman (third place, 20:38), Frank Sup (fourth, 21:13), and Ayden Klatte (fifth, 22:36) also turned in impressive performances for PVCICS, improving the Dragons to 10-2.
Northampton 15, Chicopee 50
Northampton 16, Belchertown 47
Chicopee 26, Belchertown 29 — The Blue Devils accounted for four of the top five finishers on Tuesday as they earned two victories in a tri-meet. Maeve O’Neil came in first (21:46), Tess Geis-Benton placed second (21:49), Mairead O’Neil finished third (21:50), and Charlotte Shimpach crossed the line fourth (22:32) to pace Northampton.
Cameron Ting was the fastest Orioles participant, earning a fifth-place finish at 22:55. Aubrey Harrington (26:35) and Katherine Dorman (27:49) came in second and third on the team, respectively.
Frontier 15, Greenfield 50 — The leaderboard was filled with Redhawks Tuesday afternoon. Leah Gump (21:42) led all racers with yet another first-place finish for her, and Sylvie DiBartolomeo came in second at 22:43 for Frontier.
Nicole Plasse (22:50), Liv Christensen (23:07), and Maia Christensen (23:14) rounded out the top five in the Redhawks’ win.
PVCICS 26, McCann 33
PVCICS 18, Easthampton 45
McCann 18, Easthampton 41 — Ella Maier and Eunice Lo finished second and third with times of 24:44 and 25:36, respectively, to pace the Dragons to two victories.
Emma Vasovic (seventh, 27:04) earned clutch points for PVCICS as the Dragons squeaked by McCann Tech to put their record at 8-2.
Gateway 17, St. Mary’s 46
Gateway 19, Palmer 41 — Anya Niles won the race outright with a time of 22:22 to help improve Gateway to 9-2 (9-1 in Pioneer South) as the Gators turned in the fastest three times on Tuesday.
Behind her was Sawyer Wilkinson in second place (24:51), and Alex Zajko (25:39) in third. Abby Robbins (seventh place, 27:42) and Lily Peloquin (ninth place, 28:58) also earned points for Gateway.
Amherst 3, Belchertown 0 — The Hurricanes racked up 18 aces as a team, cruising to a 25-16, 25-12, 25-21 independent sweep on Tuesday.
Amherst’s Kiko Bhowmik and Liza Beigel had four aces each, while Ruby Austin led the offense with eight kills. Other offensive standouts included Sophie Kawall (seven kills), Autumn Tarbox (six) and Shannon Klaes (five). Annabel Ogden dished out 21 assists in the win, and Beigel led the defense with 16 digs.
Belchertown was led by four kills apiece from Chrissy Santiago and Jordyn Hunter, while Vivian Ross chipped in with a team-high eight digs.
Easthampton 3, SICS 0 — The Eagles used a dominant first set victory and 14 kills from Kaelin Damon to sweep SICS for their 11th win of the season.
Set scores were 25-12, 27-25, 25-20. Erin Teague added a game-high 22 assists, and Kayley Downie (21) and Lidie Buttrick (17) combined for 38 digs in the Easthampton win.
Belchertown 3, Franklin Tech 0 — Laura Cote tallied and Edith Audette scored a pair of goals for the host Orioles en route to a key County League victory in a game pitting the top two teams in the league on Tuesday night.
Mya Philpott, Cote and Bella Cebula all notched assists. Belchertown goalie Brooke Stelmokas stopped all nine shots she faced. The teams meet Oct. 20 in Turners Falls.
Minnechaug 3, Frontier 0 — The Redhawks were unable to find the back of the cage in a Suburban League loss to the Falcons in Wilbraham on Tuesday.
Kyra Richards came up with 17 saves in goal for Frontier.
Franklin Tech 4, Gateway 0 — Jayliana Rivera made 22 saves for the Gators in a loss to the Eagles on Tuesday in Turners.
Alexi Bonenfant played well on defense for Gateway.
Granby 8, Chicopee 1 — Both Brenna Moreno and Kalli White recorded hat tricks for the Rams with three goals apiece in an impressive offensive outing. Autumn Sicard and Maggie Crawford added a goal each as well, while Kelly Lynne Kennedy and White tallied assists.
Granby goalies Meredith Bartosz (four) and Eleanor Szlosek (one) combined for five saves in the win.
Hampshire 2, Agawam 0 — A goal in each half was plenty for the Raiders with how goalie Makena Rogalski played. Rogalski snagged all 10 shots that came in her direction to earn the shutout win.
Maisie Bowler tallied two points with a goal and an assist, and Shayne Moynahan also scored for Hampshire. Anna Puttick added an assist as well.
Northampton 7, Palmer 4 — The Blue Devils overcame a 3-2 halftime deficit and four Charlotte Theriault goals to defeat the Panthers 7-4. Northampton has now scored six or more goals in all six of its wins.
Olivia Busone and Allie Sullivan each scored two goals for Northampton while Olive Little, Lilah Sage, and Willow Claps added one score apiece. Eleanor Lewis dished out two assists, and Anna Oravec continued her brilliant play in net wit nine saves.
South Hadley 1, Wahconah 1 — Moki Kovacs scored the equalizer for the Tigers as they battled to a 1-1 draw with the Warriors. Anthony Adams recorded the assist for South Hadley.
Tigers keeper Noah Carillon continued his solid play in goal with three stops on four shots.
Smith Voc 9, Duggan 1 — Jared Small scored twice and Cameron Ball (one goal, two assists) and Josh Cole (one goal, two assists) added three points apiece to lead the Vikings’ offensive outpour against Duggan.
Smith Voc saw eight different players record goals in the win, including five players tallying in the first half.
Mahar 4, Easthampton 0 — Dom Whitman buried all four goals for the Senators, two in each half, to help the visitors to a 4-0 win at Nonotuck Park in Easthampton on Tuesday.
Easthampton goalie Giuseppe DeNucce-Simms made five saves.
Athol 3, PVCICS 0 — The Dragons fell on the road, as three different Athol players found the back of the net in Tri-County League action Tuesday.
PVCICS keepers Damian Loinaz (two saves) and Richard Ang (seven saves) combined for duty between the pipes.
Smith Vocational 9, Duggan 1 — Jared Small found the back of the net twice as the Vikings cruised to a victory in Springfield on Tuesday.
Cameron Ball (one goal, two assists), Aaron Renaud (goal), Da’Jaun Merenda (one goal, one assist), Josh Cole (one goal, two assists), Jon Peters (one goal, one assist), Jack Corey (one goal), Mark Benson (one assist) and Sean Zadworny (one assist) contributed for Smith Vocational in the win.
South Hadley 165, Frontier 183 — Frontier’s Ryan Cetto was the medalist with a round of 35, but South Hadley had the next four lowest rounds en route to the victory on Tuesday.Ryan MacGregor (39), Jameson Webber (39), Caiden Drohan (42) and Jack Maziarz (45) were the scoring Tigers.
Northampton 150, Palmer 186 — All four Northampton scorers shot rounds of 40 or better en route to Tuesday’s win at Northampton Country Club.
Galen Fowles led the way with a medalist round of 34, followed by Reilly Fow les (37), Jack Carpenter (39) and Gus Fallon (40).
Hopkins 161, Turners 167 — Ryley Regan shot a team-low 38 for the Golden Hawks in a victory over the Thunder at Thomas Memorial on Tuesday.
Jack Dyjach (39), Liam Flynn (40) and JB Burke (44) rounded out the Hopkins scorers.
