Mount Greylock Boys, Lenox Girls Win Western Mass Crowns

WESTFIELD, Mass. -- The Mount Greylock boys and Lenox girls Sunday defended their Western Massachusetts Division 2 cross country titles -- the Millionaires throwing in an individual crown for good measure.

 

Senior Emma Jourdain led Lenox and everyone else in the section with a time of 19 minutes, 6 seconds on the 3.1-mile course at Stanley Park.

 

For Mount Greylock, Evan Arthur was the first of seven Mounties in the top 15 in Western Mass as the program won its seventh straight sectional title.

 

“What was really good was all seven made top 15 Western Mass, which was one of their goals -- that and obviously to win the seventh straight,” Mount Greylock coach Scott Burdick said. “For some of these kids, it's their first one. To them it's a big deal because it's their first one. I still have to go home and rake the leaves, but it's their first one.”

 

Before raking up leaves, Burdick racked up points with Arthur and teammate Jacob Fink finishing third and fourth, respectively, in 17:07. They were followed by sixth-place Sam Culver, eighth-place Jesse Seid, 12th-place Cameron Castonguay, 13th-place Josh Cheung and 15th-place Owen Brandriss.

 

In the girls race, Jourdain was joined in the top 10 by teammates Ellen Huth, Alice Najimy and Marion Huth in sixth through eighth places. Magdalena Sorrentino placed 12th for the Millionaires.

 

Jourdain said she was able to run the race she wanted to run.

 

“We went off a little fast, but then I really focused in and tried to pay attention to how I was feeling,” Jourdain said. “I know the Mohawk girl [second-place Jackie Wells] was with me. She paced a little bit. But I really focused on how I was doing. I'm really strong on hills, so that's where I decided to take it.”

 

Although Stanley Park is relatively flat compared to the sectional’s traditional home in Northfield, Jourdain still was able to use her strength going uphill.

 

“It still helps because there's that will at the end, and it doesn't look that bad, but because [the course] is flat, you go out faster than you expected, and you still need to have something for that hill,” she said. “I don't know what race it was last year, but in one race, I sort of died on the hill, and I didn't want to do that this year. So I made sure to take advantage of the hill.”

 

Jourdain finished seven seconds ahead of second-place Wells, an eighth-grader from Mohawk Trail Regional.

 

The other individual champions on Sunday were Pope Francis’ Tim Sears (16:37) in the D2 boys, Amherst’s Sophia Jacobs-Towns (19:00) in the D1 girls and Holyoke’s Cameron Correia (15:45) in the D1 boys.

 

Team-wise, West Springfield’s boys earned a narrow win in Division 1, where the Terriers compiled 47 points to edge Holyoke (52 points) for the program’s first Western Mass team title

 

Northampton (31 points) finished atop the D1 girls race, which saw Amherst (55 points) and Wahconah (112 points) finish second and third. Wahconah, led by 10th-place Kat Bruce (20:40) earned a trip to next week’s state championship meet in Gardner.

 

Mount Greylock’s girls also will make that trip along with the school’s boys team. The Mounties, who got 14th- and 15th-place performances from Margo Smith (20:20) and Niku Darafshi, placed second in Division 2 with 91 points, behind Lenox (34 points) and ahead of Mohawk (99 points).

 

The Mount Greylock boys finished with 32 points to eclipse Frontier (98) and third-place Pope Francis.

 

In addition to the Lenox and Wahconah girls and Mount Greylock boys and girls, several Berkshire County runners on Sunday punched their tickets to the all-state meet to compete as individuals.

 

In D1 boys, Pittsfield’s Lucas Godwin (17:03) and Paul Wales qualified after placing 12th and 14th, respectively. In D2 boys, Drury’s Connor Meehan (17:26) qualified with a 10th-place showing; Michael Goretti’s 18th-place finish in 18:07 was good enough to send the Spartan to Gardner next Saturday.

 

In D2 girls, Monument Mountain’s Grace Phair (19:42) placed fifth, and Jasmin Johannsdottir, was 17th to earn spots in the all-state meet.

 

The top 10 finishers not on one of the top three teams qualify for the state championship as individuals.

 

More photos from this event here.