A walk in the park?
Or an all out run to glory?
That’s the questions facing area cross country teams Saturday when they compete in the Pioneer Valley Interscholastic Athletic Conference meet at Holyoke Community College after conditions caused the meet to be moved there from Stanley Park in Westfield.
The girls begin the varsity portion of the day at 3 p.m. The boys follow at 3:40.
“I know we are going to try to win,” Holyoke Catholic girls coach John Goda said. “That’s the idea.”
The big difference between the PVIAC meet and what takes place the following week at Northfield Mountain in the sectional meets is divisions.
Saturday’s meet includes both Division I and Division II teams. The Western Massachusetts races the following week are broken up into two divisions and champions will be crowned in each.
Northampton’s boys and girls swept both PVIAC and Western Mass. Division I meets last year and the Blue Devils are expected to contend again.
But neither team is as strong as last year’s squads. PVIAC and sectional Division I champ Harrison Hunter has graduated.
But Alexander Sullivan, Sam Shankey and Sam Coates-Finke give the Blue Devils a solid top three.
Ludlow usually doesn’t go all out in PVIAC, instead electing to gear up for the sectional meet. It too, has a solid top three with Dan and Brian Crowley and Jacob LeBlanc.
Amherst may lack the elite runner other teams have, but few teams can match the Hurricanes depth. James Traester and Dylan Wight are among the Amherst runners to watch.
Two other teams, Holyoke and Westfield bear watching. Cody Hodgins and Rhys Duquette led the Purple Knights to an unbeaten season and Westfield’s lone loss was to Holyoke. The Bombers are led by Blake Croteau.
Holyoke prevailed in that meet, 22-32 to repeat as Southern League champions. Duquette won his first race this season in 16:08, five seconds ahead of Hodgins and six seconds in front of Croteau, who did not finish first for the first time this season.
“It was quite a barnburner,” Holyoke coach Dave Reinhart said.
Holyoke will use the PVIAC race as tuneup for Western Mass., where the Purple Knights will look to qualify for the state meet for the second straight season. Same for Longmeadow, which is led by Ben Gagne-Maynard.
Top Division II boys include Cathedral’s Mark Hegarty and Sam Burke, as well as Greenfield’s Marcus Aucoin and Evan Abelson.
Camille Blackman of Longmeadow is the reigning girls PVIAC and sectional Division I champion. She expects to be pressed by Belchertown’s Madison Granger, who collapsed at last season’s race, but returned the following week to place second in the Western Mass. meet.
Amherst, led by Audrey Gould, along with Northampton, led by Eliana Zimmerman, and Agawam, led by Ashley Monaham, are expected to do well. So are Ludlow and West Springfield, each with several quality runners.
East Longmeadow’s Meredith McGowan and Minnechaug’s Katie Metayer are others to watch. Holyoke Catholic is led by Staci Rezendes and the Gaels traditionally fare well in PVIACs despite being a Division II team.
Among the top Division II runners are Natalie Mako and Amy Graham from Frontier, Emma Jepsen and Natalia Olanyk from Mohawk, Brittany Dalton, Lyndsey O’Connor and Juile Roberts from Hampshire, along with Granby’s Abigail Imelio.
Ad Choices