Spartans Desilets, Pacheco Win Cross Country Opener
PITTSFIELD, Mass. – All the Berkshire County League harriers ran the same course on Saturday morning.
The two fastest runners took different paths to victory.
Monument Mountain’s Everett Pacheco and Amelia Desilets were the first ones across the finish line in the season-opening races at Berkshire Community College.
Desilets went out to the front early and stayed well ahead of the pack to take the girls race.
Pacheco used a late move to take the lead in a tight pack in the boys’ event.
“It’s the first race this season, so everyone’s kind of excited and ready to go out hard,” Pacheco said. “I knew that if I held back a while, I wouldn’t really need to push it as hard. So I waited.
“No reason to go out too hard.”
Pacheco finished four seconds ahead of runner-up Connor Harwood of Lenox and helped the Spartans go 1-2 in dual meets.
Taconic was the big winner in duals on its home course, sweeping its contests against Pittsfield, Monument Mountain and Mount Everett behind an 11th-place finish from Collin Norton.
The season opener also saw Pittsfield’s boys go 2-1 in duals with wins against Mount Everett and Monument Mountain. Eric Harrington led the Generals with a seventh-place finish.
As of Monday night, a timing glitch still was delaying the results of the girls 5-kilometer race, but there was no doubt about who won the individual honors.
Desilets was ahead of the field the first time it came out of the woods and extended her lead every time the field came into view of the finish area.
“I kind of just tried to go at my own pace for the first mile, and I felt really good throughout the first mile,” she said. “I think it was my best mile of the race.”
Desilets said she was a little surprised to find herself alone at the front of the field.
“I came into the race expecting there to be people around me,” she said. “And when I got out into the woods after the first stretch and there was no one around me, I was like, ‘OK, I can do this.’
“But I also kept hearing voices of people cheering people behind me, so I knew I had to keep going.”
Photos from the girls race here.
Photos from the boys race here.
Boys Top 20
1. Everett Pacheco, MM, 16:25.11; 2. Connor Harwood, Lnx, 16:29.18; 3. Rafa Mellow-Bartels, MG, 16:40.51; 4. Samuel Gellar, Lnx, 16:41.91; 5. Noah Wesley, Wah, 16:47.19; 6. Cadighan Gladu, Wah, 16:49.30; 7. Eric Harrington, PHS, 17:06.63; 8. Patrick Holland, MG, 17:18.37; 9. Finnegan Noyes, MG, 17:18.85; 10. Cohen Zahn, PHS, 17:23.59; 11. Collin Norton, Tac, 17:27.24; 12. Fritz Sanders, Wah, 17:27.99; 13. Owen Ames, Lnx, 17:36.20; 14. Finnegan Voisin, MG, 17:46.07; 15. Zeke Singer, MG, 17:52.91; 16. Luke Irwin, MG, 18:10.51; 17. Benjamin Mandel, MG, 18:10.51; 18. Max Mozian, Lnx, 18:14.25; 19. Ben Villa, ME, 18:15.66; 20. Quinn Ives, Tac, 18:18.85.
Boys Team Scores
Taconic 25, Pittsfield 34
Taconic 20, Monument Mountain 42
Taconic 23, Mount Everett 38
Pittsfield 22, Monument Mountain 33
Pittsfield 25, Mount Everett 30
Monument Mountain 25, Mount Everett 30
Mount Greylock 15, Lee 50
Lenox 24, Wahconah 34
Wahconah 15, Lee 50
Mount Greylock 26, Lenox 33