Amherst sweeps PVIAC cross country titles.

HOLYOKE – The times were fast.

    Many runners established personal bests on Holyoke Community College's 3.1-mile course Saturday in the Pioneer Valley Interscholastic Athletic Conference Championships.

    Cathedral senior Mark Hegarty, who won the Western Massachusetts Division II individual title as a sophomore, captured his first PVIAC title. He finished in a personal best 15 minutes, 33 seconds.

    Longmeadow senior Camille Blackman repeated as girls champion in a personal best of 18:02. She enters Saturday's sectional meet at Northfield Mountain as reigning champ in that event.

    The course was laid out at the college only last Wednesday by meet director Tom Stewart, who had to scramble after the storm made Stanley Park in Westfield not fit for a cross country race.

    Most of the HCC course was flat, which enabled many of the runners to earn personal bests.

    Amherst Regional swept both the boys and girls meets.
    The Amherst boys finished with 64 points, seven in front of runner-up Holyoke. Northampton, which won last season's event, took third with 87 points.

    Cathedral (124), Westfield (168), Longmeadow (188), Agawam (218), Minnechaug (231), Greenfield (318) and West Springfield (367) rounded out the top 10.

    The Amherst girls finished first with 62 points, 14 ahead of runner-up Longmeadow. Mohawk took third with 159 points.
    Reigning champion Northampton finished fourth with 182 points. Rounding out the top 10 were Hampshire (184), Holyoke Catholic (184), Frontier (188), Agawam (208), Minnechaug (304) and Belchertown (304).

    Hegarty ran another great race. He finished seven seconds ahead of the first Division I runner, Blake Croteau of Westfield.
    "He's been running for so long and he understand it,"

Cathedral coach Dan Walsh said. "He's confident and I was impressed. If anyone deserves it, it's Mark Hegarty."

    As happy as Hegarty was, he expressed concern for fellow Panther Sam Burke, who was not feeling well prior to race. Burke, who is usually right up there with Hegarty, placed 17th in 16:23.

    "You should have seen him before the race," Hegarty said. "He'll be all right next week and we're hoping to do well as a team."

    The Panthers figure to be right in the thick of things in the Division II sectional race and Hegarty is expected to battle Scott Carpenter of Lenox for individual honors.

    "I will give it everything I have and so will our team," Hegarty said.

    Cody Hodgins led Holyoke to a second place finish with his personal best (15:43). He lives near the college and was where his mother introduced him to running when he was a youngster.

    The Knights hope to return to the state meet next week in Northfield.

    Amherst was just too strong. The Hurricanes used their depth and again, ran strong as a pack.

East Longmeadow, which has been in a rebuilding year, got a glimpse into its future when freshman Jack Moynihan won the junior varsity race in 17:20.

    Blackman was hoping to break 18:00 and she nearly did it.
    "I was so close and I'm hoping at states, I can finally break it," Blackman said. "I was really excited."

    Once again, she staved off a strong challenge from runner-up Madison Granger of Belchertown in a repeat of last season's sectional Division I race in Pittsfield.

    The two runners had a friendly chat following yet another challenging race between the to elite runners.

    "She's amazing and I was happy to see her get a personal best," Blackman said. "She helps me, because I knew the hole time, she was right on me."

    Granger could not help feel like a winner after what happened to her in last season's PVIAC race. She collapsed and had to be taken off the course at Stanley Park by ambulance, but she was able to return for the sectional meet a week later.

    Granger's previous best time was 18:56. She topped that by 40 seconds.

    "I'm very happy," she said. "To have a race like this was challenging and there were a lot of fast times because of all the downhills, but it was still hard on your body."

    Amherst was again led by its captain and leader, Audrey Gould, who finished strong was only 21 seconds behind Blackman and seven back of Granger.

    "We did what we needed to do and Emmy Zimmerman (ninth place, 19:23) came through with her best race of the year," Amherst coach Eric Nazar said. "For her to have a breakout race was just what we needed."
 

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