By B. Dorion / Photo By Kevin Urban
The 2013 Pioneer Valley Interscholastic Athletic Championship race, better known as PVIAC, was held at Stanley Park on Saturday. The day progressed and many personal records were made. PVIAC championships is the first post season race of the year and gives athlete the opportunity to prove them self on a large stage.
Excitement mounted as the JV girls toed the line for the first race. Amherst Regional girls swept the race by claiming the top 9 spots; freshman Lydia Sawyer claimed firstplace with a time of 21:06. The JV Boys also put forth a great showing. Amherst Regional’s Lenny Knight claimed the first spot with a time of 18:15, helping lead his team to first place finish.!
Anticipation rose as the Girls Varsity stepped up to the line. Senior Ally Morin was the favorite going into Saturday’s race, but finished a disappointing second to Amherst Regional’s Anna Kaplan. Morin, who dominated the regular season, and who beat Kaplan a week before, was upset with her performance this week running a 19:10 5k to Kaplan’s 19:00. Kaplan begins her senior year championship season with an impressive win and looks to take on a field of strong competitors at Northfield next weekend. Among the girls’ top finishers were Kathryn Wright (Monson), Mariel Lutz (Northampton), and Emma Gonzalez (Amherst). Amherst bested every other team by an impressive 66 points. The final score after the dust had settled was Amherst girls 36, Longmeadow 92, and Northampton 122. Holyoke Catholic, Ludlow, and Mohawk girls will be among the teams looking to improve for next weekend’s Western Mass championships to qualify for the state championship. !
Perhaps the most anticipated race of the day began as the showdown between season rivals Sam Conway and Ben Doiron commenced. Both had reason to be the favorite coming into the race as they traded blows all season. Doiron took a fast dual meet win early in the season with 15:54 to beat Conway. Four days later Conway struck back and won the Amherst Invitational in 15:58 beating Doiron who finished third. Others who were looking to be in the mix came in the likes of Amherst’s Ryan Stender, Liam Garvey of West Springfield, and Northampton’s junior Adian Gilson. The race took off at a solid pace of 5:00 through one mile. Stender lead through two miles. Chasing him down was Sam Conway, Liam Garvey and Ben Doiron. Upon reaching the course’s lone hill, Stender lost his lead and made way to Sam Conway, who made strong surges to the top. Doiron and Garvey struggled to hang on. In the end, Minnechaug’s Sam Conway prevailed with a PR (15:48), while Westfield’s Ben Doiron snagged second in 15:56. Garvey, Stender, and Amherst junior Connor Evans rounded out the top five. Westfield’s Cheyenne Grabiec and West Springfield's TJ Drohan finished 6th and 7th upsetting The Republican’s “Super 7” preseason predictions, and many other athletes. Freshman Joel Ramos of Holyoke finished in an incredible eighth place with 16:31. Assessing how the teams stacked up to one another, Amherst won yet again. They incredibly finished first in every race of the day; however, this time they did not dominate by such a large margin.
Minnechaug finished with 87 points to Amherst's 70. Westfield took a respectable third (103), not falling too far from the outstanding campaign of last year.