MEDFORD — Frontier’s Ben Cachiguango and Mahar’s Mitchell Krasco have been battling it out on the track throughout their high school careers. 

It only made sense that the 110-meter hurdles finals at the MIAA Division 6 Track & Field Championships at Tufts University came down to the two seniors. 

Cachiguagno entered the meet as the top seed but in the preliminary race, it was Krasco who finished with the top time to enter the finals as the favorite. Cachiguango didn’t run his best in the prelim, earning the last qualifying spot in lane eight. 

Cachiguango and Krasco were side-by-side throughout the final run, both sprinting to the finish line at nearly the same time. 

“I saw Mitch nearly the entire race,” Cachiguango said. “I was looking straight and saw [he was] right there.” 

“I didn’t see Ben until the final four hurdles then I just saw the red [uniform] come running by,” Krasco added. “I thought ‘no way.’”

Cachiguango beat Krasco to the finish line by just 0.12 seconds, capturing the state title with a time of 15.25 seconds. Krasco took second with a time of 15.37 seconds. 

“It feels amazing,” Cachiguango said. “It was a great race.” 

It’s the second state title for Cachiguango this week, as he took first and set a meet record in the 400 hurdles on Friday. 

“It’s absolutely amazing,” Cachiguango said. “Getting two golds at states means so much to me. When I was injured I couldn’t run so this feels great today.” 

Frontier’s Evan Hedlund has been chasing Monument Mountain’s Everett Pacheco in the mile and 2 mile, Pacheco winning the 2 mile on Friday while Hedlund placed third. 

While Pacheco was the heavy favorite in the mile on Sunday, Hedlund gave him as close of a race as he ever has. 

The two were neck-and-neck throughout the four laps around the track and into the final stretch of the race. With both sprinting to the finish line, the two crossed at nearly the same time. Pacheco was a hair ahead and won with a time of 4:19.16 while Hedlund took second with a run of 4:19.49. 

“I know Everett has been miles ahead of everyone I raced this year in terms of time,” Hedlund said. “There were huge gaps, especially two days ago in the two-mile. My PR since March in the mile has been 4:25 in my first race of the season so I wasn’t really close to where he was going in. I was just chasing a time anything under 4:20 all year.” 

Hedlund has had the goal of breaking 4:20 in the mile for a long time and though he didn’t get the first place medal, he was proud to have accomplished the feat Sunday. 

“Since eighth grade, I’ve been thinking I have a real chance to go to a Power Five school if I can break 4:20 my sophomore year,” Hedlund said. “I hadn’t broken it yet and this was my last hurrah. Everett was there the whole time and he pushed me. He’s been close enough where I can see him but he was miles better. That pushed me and I feel great about this.”

It wasn’t the only medal Hedlund won on Sunday. Along with Charlie Dennis, Gus Radner and Luke Howard, the Frontier 4x800-meter relay team earned first place with a time of 8:22.33. 

“It was incredible,” Dennis said. “All credit to Luke Howard, our second runner. He took us from third to last all the way to first. Evan extended the lead and I kept it. Great race from us. We’ve been talking about this race for two years now. It feels great to finally bring it home.” 

“I was using the mile as motivation to come back,” Hedlund added. “Two years ago I got outkicked as anchor and we got out of medal contention. It lit a fire under us. We knew we could win this.” 

It was a big weekend at Tufts for South Hadley’s Maggie Crawford. 

The senior won the 400-meter hurdles on Friday and on Sunday, made it to the finals of the 100 hurdles where she placed eighth (17.64). Crawford was also part of the Tigers’ 4x400 relay team that earned 10th (4:23.30). 

“That was really good [on Friday],” Crawford said. “I feel really good with how it all went. My 100 hurdle final wasn’t what I wanted but I used all that to give it all I had in my last high school 4x4.” 

Aimee George was the top performer on the day for South Hadley, taking second in the girls javelin (110-11). Also for the Tigers, Matt Gillis placed 24th in the boys 400 (53.42) and 17th in the javelin (120-8), Mikayla Weaver took 28th in the girls 400(1:06.04), Nathan Hutchinson placed 23rd in the boys mile (4:49.95), Izzy Scott took 13th in the girls mile (5:32.51), Gavin Losty placed 22nd in the boys javelin (111-2), Anthony Adams came in 17th in boys long jump (10-10.5) and Emma Levreault placed 20th in girls shot (31-10). 

In the relays, the Tiger boys took 18th in the 4x100 (47.27), 21st in the 4x400 (3:41.32) and 18th in the 4x800 (9:18.72). The South Hadley girls placed 21st in the 4x100 (55.69) and 18th in the 4x800 (11:41.47). 

For the Frontier girls, Hannah Davis came in 11th in the 100 hurdles (17.17) and 14th in long jump (15-6), Josie Fosnot placed 12th in the 400 (1:02.39), Mary Burt took sixth in high jump (4-10), Bailey Cusson placed fifth in javelin (103-0), Lilly Novak took 15th in javelin (90-3) and fourth in shot put (31-7.25), Olive Klaus took eighth in pole vault (8-6) and Elsa Brown came in ninth in pole vault (8-0). The Redhawk team of Madelyn Antes, Phoebe Radner, Addie Morrey and Josie Fosnot took seventh in the 4x400 (4:21.28) and the 4x400 team of Sylvie Dibartolomeo, Mara Allium, Radner and Morey came in sixth (10:43.66). 

For the Frontier boys, Adrien Pazmandy placed 14th in the 400 (52.58), Ian Paciorek took 15th in the 400 (52.60) and Julian Adams placed eighth in javelin (146-1). The Redhawk 4x400 team of Pazmandy, Paciorek, Cachiguango and Garrett Dredge placed eighth (3:37.30).  

For Easthampton, Morgan Wijnhoven took 18th in the girls 100 (13.88) and 13th in the 400 (1:02.84) and Arie Kuchyt took 23rd in girls long jump (15-0). The Eagles girls 4x100 relay team took 11th (53.58), their girls 4x800 came in 13th (11:13.04) and their girls 4x400 team placed 22nd (11:13.04). 

For Hampshire, Gabriella Dybacki came in 17th in the girls 400 (1:04.17), Elisabeth Sturtevant took 24th in the girls 400 (1:05.68), Bethany Tobiaz placed 26th in the girls 400 (1:05.90), Owen Cubi took 11th in the boys mile (4:41.75), in the girls mile Ada Corner took 20th (5:41.92), Kathleen Barry took 23rd (5:47.77), Brooke Hockenberry placed 26th (5:49.05), Charlotte Niswonger came in 27th (5:49.60) and Alex Henrichon took 28th (5:55.53) and Augustus Niswonger took 18th in boys pole vault (9-6). The Raider girls took 16th in the 4x400 (4:33.14) and fourth in the 4x800 (10:39.88) while the Hampshire boys took 14th in the 4x800 (8:53.09).

Holyoke, Belchertown in action in state meets

The Purple Knights competed in the MIAA Division 3 meet while the Orioles were in action in the MIAA Division 5 meet over the weekend.

Holyoke was led by Yasani Thompson’s third-place finish in the 400. The junior turned in a time of 59.75 to earn six points for her team. Jayderson Lugo (14th, 51.67 in 400), Ryan Kennedy (19th, 52.26 in 400 hurdles) and Jaden Diaz (22nd, 39 feet, 11 1/4 inches) rounded out Holyoke’s competitors.

In the D5 meet, Fallon Clancy competed in a pair of events – taking home 10th in the long jump with a jump of 15-9.50 and finishing 18th in the 100 prelims (13.36). Elsewhere, Aubrey Klingensmith threw 86-9 in the girls javelin and Miles McNamara ran a 5:02.58 in the boys mile.

Belchertown finished seventh in the girls 4x100 relay (52.05), 10th in the boys 4x800 relay (8:41.20) and 16th in the girls 4x800 relay (11:16.12) to round out the day.