Hoosac Valley Returns to Fray as Berkshire League Visits Wahconah Country Club
DALTON, Mass. -- It’s not that cross country skiers are gluttons for punishment, per se.
They just have a different definition of “fun” than most other people.
Moments after finishing second in the boys race at Saturday’s Berkshire County Nordic League competition, Hoosac Valley’s Justin Levesque talked about the course at Wahconah Country Club.
“There’s no hills on this course, so there was really no place to recover,” he said. “There’s no downills at any point. The recovery was just the flats. And it was also really windy when you get out on the course. You get the wind blowing in your face, so it’s hard to recover.
“This was my first time [at WCC], and it was really nice. I liked it.”
Come again?
“It was a really cool race,” Levesque said. “But it was hard, too.”
Levesque covered the course in 17 minutes, 11 seconds to finish behind just Mount Greylock’s Col McDermott, a three-time winner this winter after finishing in 16:29.
McDermott led the Mounties to a first-place finish ahead of Hoosac Valley and host Wahconah.
Rounding out the scoring for Mount Greylock were Quinn McDermott, Corban Miller and Foster Savitsky in third through fifth places respectively.
Wahconah’s top finisher was Fritz Sanders, who finished in 19:20.
Mount Greylock once again dominated on the girls side as well, taking the top four spots. Jacqueline Wells led the way, finishing 1:42 ahead of the field in 18:41. Annie Miller, Lily McDermott and Elizabeth Dupras placed second, third and fourth.
Wahconah was led by Haley Crosier, who was fifth with a time of 22:06. Hoosac Valley entered just one girl in the varsity race, but Vienna Mahar turned in a strong performance, placing sixth in 25:19.
Crosier had an equally positive, if slightly different, assessment of the golf course, located just across the road from Wahconah’s campus, the usual site for home meets.
“This one is more fun, I feel like, because you have all these twists and turns,” Crosier said. “You have a hard up turn in the beginning, the first mile. And then once you pop that top … it’s rollies and you have one more top and then it’s one more down.
“It’s fun over here. Wahconah’s course is more straightforward and flat. A lot of V2 over there.”
Crosier said the Wahconah team got to practice a little on the WCC course during the week, and the familiarity helped.
“Mr. T [Wahconah coach Ryan Touponce] is awesome with his grooming,” Crosier said. “He was out here until 11 o’clock grooming, which is awesome for him to make it possible for us to be out on great snow.”
For Wahconah and Mount Greylock, it was the third straight weekend competition of a delayed season.
For Hoosac, it was just the second time on snow as a team in several weeks.
“We started practicing two months ago, but we had to stop,” Levesque said. “And then we came back, and our last practice was Wednesday. That was our last practice before this race and first practice in a while.
“Adams is in a red zone right now, so we’re unable to get together to practice.”
Levesuqe said he went as an individual to get his work in at Notchview “probably every single day,” but Saturday, with his teammates and familiar foes, had a different feel.
“It’s very nice,” he said. “It’s always exciting to get out and race.”
Girls Team Scores
1. Mount Greylock 10 points; 2. Wahconah 34 points.
Girls Top 10
1. Jacqueline Wells (MG) 18:41; 2. Annie Miller (MG) 20:19; 3. Lily McDermott (MG) 20:49; 4. Elizabeth Dupras (MG) 21:03; 5. Haley Crosier (W) 21:06; 6. Vienna Mahar (HV) 21:19; 7. Lainey Gill (MG) 21:26; 8. Quinn Walton (W) 22:14; 9. Juilann Lawson (MG) 22:20; 10. Olivia Langenheim (W) 23:10.
Boys Team Scores
1. Mount Greylock 13 points; 2. Hoosac Valley 37 points; 3. Wahconah 44 points.
Boys Top 10
1. Col McDermott (MG) 16:29; 2. Justin Levesque (HV) 17:11; 3. Quinn McDermott (MG) 17:22; 4. Corban Miller (MG) 17:33; 5. Foster Savitsky (MG) 17:37; 6. Cedric Lemaire (MG) 17:38; 7. Gabe Gerry (MG) 17:55; 8. Charlie McWeeny (MG) 18:26; 9. Corban Craig (HV) 18:30; 10. Teague Murphy (MG) 18:39.