Frontier Dominates as McCann Tech Cross Country Opens at Home
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ADAMS, Mass. -- Brandon Miller waited a long time to run his first high school race, and he wasted no time getting to the finish line.
Miller, a sophomore at McCann Tech, clocked a time of 21 minutes, 38 seconds on a new 3.1-mile course at Greylock Glen Tuesday to place sixth overall in a three-team race with Hopkins Academy and Frontier.
“We got to run it a bit for practice,” Miller said. “It’s a decent course. The hill might be the main issue with most runners. That might kill your pace. But besides that, the course is fine.”
Frontier’s runners conquered the hill about two thirds of the way into the course and everything else in sight on Tuesday, taking the top five places in the boys race and the top six in the girls.
Luke Howard paced the boys with a time of 20:11. Abigail Howard led the girls field in 23:47.
All five of the scorers for the Frontier boys finished within 41 seconds of one another as they posted a 15-44 win over the host Hornets. McCann Tech’s boys topped Hopkins, 19-40.
The McCann girls fell to Frontier, 15-50. The other girls dual went to Hopkins, 22-35.
Miller, who also plans to run track if the Drury-McCann co-op is revived this spring, feels good about the cross country squad as its campaign gets underway.
“I feel like we have had a really great start,” he said. “It took a little time to get everybody into running a 5-K, but I’m pretty sure everybody ran the full thing today.”
Chris Sunn and Daniel McGory placed eighth and ninth, respectively, for the Hornets. Jordan Greenbush (13th) and Noah Forzon (18th) rounded out the scoring for the hosts.
McCann Tech’s top girl was Camryn Moran, who finished 10th overall in 29:46.
Amy Harrington (17th), Rebecca Vallieres (18th) and Lily Marceau (19th) also scored for the Hornets.
The Hornets are on the road next Tuesday against Greenfield and Mohawk Trail in Buckland.
McCann Tech coach John Estes said Tuesday’s season opener was a good opportunity to work out the kinks.
“I told the team that in the NFL, the opening Sunday is jitters,” Estes said. “Same thing with baseball on Opening Day. And it can only get better.
“Even though we’ve been training here for a couple of weeks, this was the first time we’ve run the course in race conditions. But we got a lot of good times. And it’s tough to judge against a tough opponent like Frontier.”
Frontier’s girls were sixth in Division 2 at the 2019 Western Massachusetts sectional; the Frontier boys were eighth the last time the MIAA ran a cross country sectional.
“Our times were right in the ballpark from what we did two years ago,” Estes said of the Hornets. “My top runners two years ago were in the 22s, so the Miller kid ran a nice race for us.”
Boys Scores
Frontier 15, McCann Tech 44
McCann Tech 19, Hopkins 40
Boys Top 10
1. Luke Howard (F) 20:11; 2. Alex Carey (F) 20:40; 3. Erich Brown (F) 20:44; 4. Patrick Boyden (F) 20:46; 5. Amory Makey (F) 20:52; 6. Brandon Miller (M) 21:38; 7. Oliver Brown (F) 23:13; 8. Chris Sunn (M) 24:01; 9. Dan McGrory (M) 24:39; 10. Chris Rey (H) 24:50.
Girls Scores
Frontier 15, McCann Tech 50
Hopkins 22, McCann Tech 35
Girls Top 10
1. Abigail Howard (F) 23:47; 2. Sylvie DiBartolomeo (F) 24:03; 3. Sadie Ross (F) 24:41; 4. Leah Gump (F) 24:59; 5. Ayla Starr (F) 26:12; 6. Sasha Malo (F) 26:13; 7. Caprial DiBartolomeo (H) 27:37; 8. Nicole Blasse (F) 27:56; 9. Angelina Egland (F) 28:37; 10. Camryn Moran (M) 29:46.