Swann, Yee Lead Greylock Girls, Lenox Boys to Invy Titles
WINDSOR, Mass. -- Mount Greylock's Katherine Swann capped an MVP season with a high MPH performance on Saturday at the Berkshire County Invitational at Notchview Reservation.
Swann finished more than 33 seconds ahead of the field, covering the course in 19 minutes, 5.11 seconds to lead the Mounties to a first-place team finish in the final county event of the season.
As dominant as she was on Saturday, Swann's coach said the speedy sophomore was not saving anything for the post-season meets. Swann just keeps getting faster.
"She goes out and runs hard the entire way," Hilary Greene said. "I don't think she knows how to run slower.
"During the season, she had so many races where it was her and Haley [Crosier of Wahconah] or her and Kellie [Harrington of Pittsfield], just sprinting it in. Now, it's kind of nice that she can be a front-runner and not have that kind of pressure at the end."
Harrington was the runner-up on Saturday, finishing in 19:38.84 to help the Generals place third in the eight-team girls field.
Second place in the girls varsity race went to Lenox, which finished 21 points behind Mount Greylock despite the loss of one of its top runners, who was unable to finish the race due to a medical condition. The Millionaires were paced by Ava Bachman (19.57.95) and Alice Culver, who finished third and fourth, respectively.
Lenox won the boys race Saturday behind a first-place finish by Ted Yee (16:53.28). He was chased across the finish line by teammate Colin Young (17:11.44) as they paced the Millionaires to a 30-point win in the team standings.
Monument Mountain placed second with a trio of runners in the top six. Keegan Leach (17:17.25) was third. Peter LaRochelle and Diego Salinetti placed fifth and sixth, respectively.
Monument Mountain's boys and girls each celebrated team dual-meet championships on Saturday. The Spartans' boys won the Berkshire County Northern Division, and the girls won the Southern Division with their performance in weekly duals throughout September and October.
Mount Greylock's girls were crowned Northern Division Champs. Wahconah's boys won the Southern Division title.
While Swann led the girls all-Berkshire team with MVP honors, three harriers shared that title on the boys side: Yee, Salinetti, and Taconic's Jacob Paris, who finished 11th on Saturday to help his squad place fourth in the meet, behind Lenox, Monument Mountain and Mount Greylock.
Yee said that he and Young benefited from a little pre-race reconnaissance as the event moved to a neutral location better known as the home of the state nordic skiing championships.
"We know some people in the league like to start fast like Ollie [Swabey of Mount Greylock] and Jake [Paris]," Yee said. "So we were going keep up with them, and if they went too slow pass them and start leading. That's what I did around 1 mile, and then Colin caught up with me. ... There's a spot where we marked 1,200 meeters from the end, where we started picking up. That's where I started leaving him.
"It's the last part of the uphill right before the downhill, because the downhill is all just letting gravity take it. So it's the last surge uphill. If you want to leave someone behind, that's where you do it. ... We came out here last week and did the course, and then this morning we decided that's where we would put a surge in."
Max Adam, Dennis Love and Harry Touloukian scored for the Lenox boys.
Joining Swann in the scoring column for the Mount Greylock girls were Erin Keating, Grace Malone, Jacqueline Wells and Hazel Scullin. Ainsley Abel finished four seconds and one place behind Scullin.
Depth was a theme for the Mounties. In the day's first race, the girls junior varsity, Mount Greylock won with a perfect score of 15 and took an eye-popping 11 of the first 12 places in the 100-runner field.
"They all train together, they all push each other," Greene said of her squad. "I always wish there were more slots in the varsity race, because I feel like they would fit right in there.
"It was fun to see them. I'm so glad for Miriam [Bakija], who won the JV race her senior year. It's nice for her to get some good recognition."
Bakija finished in 22:16.39, six seconds ahead of teammate Sophia Mele (22:22.59).
Mount Greylock's boys also won a competitive JV race, compiling 35 points to edge Monument Mountain, which finished with 43. Monument's Andrew McCarthy placed first in 19:10.57, eight seconds ahead of runner-up Cormac Mathews of Lenox. Mount Greylock's Ezra Holzapfel led the Mounties with a third-place showing in 19:22.28.
Complete results available here.
GIRLS TEAM SCORES
1 Greylock 00:20:29.23, 31 points
2 Lenox 00:21:08.81, 52
3 Pittsfield 00:21:34.28, 63
4 Wahconah 00:22:51.63, 108
5 Taconic 00:23:28.11, 127
6 Lee 00:24:07.62, 152
7 Monument 00:24:27.71, 168
8 Hoosac 00:26:15.78, 223
GIRLS TOP 20
1 1 537 Katherine Swann SO 00:19:05.11 Greylock
2 2 860 Kellie Harrington FR 00:19:38.84 Pittsfield
3 3 701 Ava Bachman FR 00:19:57.95 Lenox
4 4 697 Alice Culver 8th 00:20:06.02 Lenox
5 5 516 Erin Keating 8th 00:20:20.57 Greylock
6 6 518 Grace Malone 8th 00:20:30.22 Greylock
7 7 881 Haley Crosier JR 00:20:38.84 Wahconah
8 8 542 Jacqueline Wells JR 00:20:54.80 Greylock
9 9 841 Cami Diehl SR 00:21:08.33 Pittsfield
10 10 687 Ellen Huth JR 00:21:21.11 Lenox
11 11 541 Hazel Scullin JR 00:21:35.47 Greylock
12 (12) 524 Ainsley Abel FR 00:21:39.11 Greylock
13 13 758 Ahliya Phillips SO 00:21:39.20 Taconic
14 14 682 Audrey Touloukian 8th 00:21:42.57 Lenox
15 15 873 Olivia Gamberoni 8th 00:21:59.72 Wahconah
16 16 842 Megan Francoeur SR 00:22:17.78 Pittsfield
17 17 849 Isabella Penna-Ward JR 00:22:19.37 Pittsfield
18 18 810 Anna Martin FR 00:22:22.33 Lee
19 19 843 Abby Kittler SR 00:22:27.10 Pittsfield
20 (20) 845 Emelyn Theriault SR 00:22:32.22 Pittsfield
BOYS TEAM SCORES
1 Lenox 00:17:35.44, 29 points
2 Monument 00:18:02.94, 59
3 Greylock 00:18:27.64, 75
4 Taconic 00:18:36.24, 83
5 Pittsfield 00:19:03.03, 122
6 Wahconah 00:19:27.73, 155
7 Lee 00:19:50.96, 181
BOYS TOP 20
1 1 722 Ted Yee JR 00:16:53.28 Lenox
2 2 718 Colin Young JR 00:17:11.44 Lenox
3 3 656 Keegan Leach JR 00:17:17.25 Monument
4 4 577 Ollie Swabey 8th 00:17:20.24 Greylock
5 5 655 Peter LaRochelle JR 00:17:22.89 Monument
6 6 663 Diego Salinetti SO 00:17:32.45 Monument
7 7 715 Max Adam FR 00:17:42.00 Lenox
8 8 713 Dennis Love FR 00:17:48.34 Lenox
9 0 923 Cole Duval SR 00:17:55.18 Everett
10 9 1463 Emanual Brown SR 00:18:09.54 Pittsfield
11 10 793 Jacob Paris SR 00:18:11.10 Taconic
12 0 37 Justin Levesque SO 00:18:19.90 Hoosac
13 11 717 Harry Touloukian SO 00:18:22.14 Lenox
14 12 594 Parker Winters SO 00:18:27.26 Greylock
15 13 599 Charlie McWeeny JR 00:18:27.88 Greylock
16 14 795 Chris Adams SR 00:18:29.52 Taconic
17 15 500 Jack Archey SO 00:18:30.80 Pittsfield
18 16 778 Nate Bentz SO 00:18:30.89 Taconic
19 17 833 Zach Bianco JR 00:18:31.67 Lee
20 (18) 724 Maxime Leger SR 00:18:43.83 Lenox