WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. -- Last year, the Mount Greylock boys cross country team won the Western Mass title with four seniors among its five scoring athletes.
With that kind of loss to graduation, you might think that means the Mounties will be expected to take a step backward this year - until you realize that it was the Mounties' fifth straight sectional title and seventh in the last 10 years.
The Mount Greylock program has shown an ability to reload.
"To be honest, we had 14 seniors on the team last year, which is a lot," Mounties coach Scott Burdick said this week. "At any other school without our numbers ... I'm just really fortunate.
"For another team, you lose four of your top five, and it might be a rebuilding year or whatever. We'll be OK. Will we be as good as last year? Time will tell.
"Not many coaches could say that. I'm just very fortunate."
Local harriers return to the course on Thursday morning along with volleyball players, soccer players and golfers as the MIAA gets the rest of the fall sports seasons under way, three days after football's Monday start.
Burdick said he doesn't know for sure how many boys will turn out for cross country this fall, but he expects more than 30.
"Our numbers are always pretty good," he said. "There's an interest at Mount Greylock."
That interest has translated into one of the most consistent programs in Berkshire County. If the Mounties' current run of success is to continue, however, they will need some of last year's understudies to step to the fore.
Rising sophomore Owen Brandriss looks to be ready. Last year at Western Mass, he finished just four seconds behind the graduated Jake Kobrin -- good for 21st place overall and sixth on the Mounties.
Brandriss earned the right to make the trip to Boston for the state meet last November along with classmate Sam Culver and then eighth-grader Jacob Fink.
The top returner for Mount Greylock this fall is rising senior Tommy Kirby, who placed 17th at the state meet after placing fourth at Western Mass behind three runners -- Lenox's Tucker McNinch, Hoosac Valley's Travis Ciempa and Monument Mountain's Ace McAlister -- who have graduated.
"Tommy is a veteran, obviously," Burdick said. "It's going to be his sixth year running with us. It's not like he's an unknown. The other teams know who he is.
"He was our top finisher in the post-season. He was injured at the beginning of the season, but once he got into shape, he ran well."
If the Mounties do round into shape to be a contender again at Western Mass, they will try to defend their title in a new location. A construction project at the Northfield Recreation Area makes it unavailable for the sectional meet, forcing a move to Stanley Park in Westfield, which also will host the state meet as the Western Mass section takes its turn in the three-year rotation.
"That might be better for our Western Mass kids this year," Burdick said, referring to the move from hilly Northfield. "I never liked [Northfield] for Western Mass because kids go out and kill themselves to get in states and then have to recover to run the next week when the other kids [in Eastern and Central Mass] are running pancake courses."
