Mount Greylock Girls Win Sectional; Lee, Lenox, Monument, Wahconah Send Teams to States

WESTFIELD, Mass. -- There were teams that ran a little faster and teams that took home more hardware than the Lee girls cross country team on Saturday.

 

But it is safe to say that none were more excited to hear their result.

 

Hugs and shrieks and a few tears were in order when their coach informed the Wildcats that their season was not over and that they had qualified, as a unit, to compete in next week's State Championship meet.

 

"This was our goal the entire season," Lee senior Brianna Kelly said. "We all were really excited to find out we made it. We didn't know how we were going to do, and we all put in our best effort and did it for each other.

 

"We're a family this season, and we all wanted to go to states as a family. And we're all just super excited about it."

 

They reached that goal with room to spare.

 

Behind a 20th-place finish from Anna Martin, Lee placed fifth out of 16 teams at the district qualifier, where the top seven teams in each  of three divisions qualified to go to the Wrentham Developmental Center in Gardner next Saturday.

 

The Wildcats will be joined by two of their Berkshire County rivals in the Division 3C field at the all-state meet.

 

Mount Greylock's girls won the district title with 39 points, 60 points ahead of runner-up Lenox.

 

The Mounties and Millionaires also saw their boys teams advance in Division 3C. Lenox's boys were runners-up to Parker Charter by just two points (52 to 54) in their state qualifier. Mount Greylock's boys were fourth with 178 points.

 

Hoosac Valley's Justin Levesque will be running next Saturday as an individual after qualifying with a 

 

In Division 3A, Monument Mountain's girls qualified with a seventh-place finish.

 

In Division 3B, Wahconah's boys placed sixth to punch their ticket for the all-state meet.

 

Several of the teams that qualified on Saturday are perennial powers in high school cross country. The Lee girls are relative upstarts. In 2019, the last time they held cross country post-season tournaments, the Wildcats placed ninth in a field of 16 at the Western Massachusetts Championships.

 

But at the Berkshire County Invitational two weeks ago, Lee placed third behind Mount Greylock and Lenox. As it turns out, that was a harbinger of things to come.

 

"We got two new coaches, and they've been the biggest help to us," Kelly said. "We've all improved so much since the first practice. Some of us couldn't even run. And now we're going to states.

 

"We definitely have made lots of progress this year, and it pays off."

 

Martin covered the 3-kilometer course at Stanley Park in 2 minutes, 37 seconds, about two and a half minutes behind 3C champion Kylie Marion of Narragansett (18:59).

 

Lee's Emily Holian placed 23rd in 21:58. The Wildcats' scoring was rounded out by Kelly (35th), Emma Ranzoni (36th) and Ava Lopez (57th).

 

Mount Greylock's Kate Swann (19:04) placed second overall, five seconds behind Marion and the first of five Mounties in the top 20. Grace Malone was fourth, Ainsley Abel was sixth, Erin Keating was 12th and Vera de Jong was 19th.

 

Lenox was led by Alice Culver, who placed third in 19:07. Elyssa Scrimo and Audrey Touloukian finished 15th and 16th, respectively, for the Millionaires.

 

In the 3A race, Madeleine Roucheleau Holmes finished 12th in 20:45 to lead the Spartans to their state qualifying score.

 

Firsty-year Cadighan Gladu led Wahconah's boys with a time of 17:59 and a 26th-place finish in the 3B race. Sophomore Riley Gladu was just off that pace, finishing 30th in 18:09.

 

For the Lenox boys, Maxwell Adam and Dennis Love finished two seconds apart in fourth and fifth place, respectively. Adam crossed the line in 16:43, 25 seconds behind Division 3C individual titlist Caleb Hatlelvig of Parker Charter.

 

The Lenox boys, like the Mount Greylock girls, placed all five of their scorers in the top 20 overall as Renzo Vargas (11th), Cormac Mathews (17th) and Harry Touloukian rounded out the scoring for the Millionaires.

 

Ezra Holzapfel led Mount Greylock's boys with an 18th-place finish in 17:53. Andrew Petropulos (25th), Oliver Swabey (36th), Rafael Mellow-Bartels (47th) and Vincent Welch (58th) backed him up.

 

That Division 3C boys race was the tightest of the day for first place, which just two points separating Lenox and Parker Charter.

 

The Division 3C girls had the widest margin of victory among the six team champions crowned, with Mount Greylock finishing 60 points ahead of the field.

 

"Since the beginning of the season, I've said I want the end of the season to be our focus," Mount Greylock's Swann said. "I want to do really well and go out on a bang my senior year. Obviously, we want to qualify for next week, and it's at Wrentham, where we won in my eighth grade year, so I'm really hoping for some big stuff.

 

"It's a really big confidence booster that we could do it today."

 

Photos from the Stanley Park meet here.

GARDNER, Mass. -- Jack Archey placed 23rd in a 171-runner field to lead Pittsfield High's contingent at the Division 2B State Championship Qualifier at Gardner Golf Course.

 

Archey finished in 18:02 to lead the Generals to a 23rd place showing in the team competition.

 

The top Pittsfield girl on Saturday was Grace Ungewitter, who finished 62nd in a time of 22:39.

 

Division 3A

Monument Mountain: 12. Madeleine Rocheleau Holmes (20:45); 38. Rae Geddes (22:25); 51. Evie Grossman (22:55); 56. Zadie Laska (23:06); 77. Kaelin Havens (23:54); Kiera O'Rourke (25:26); 109. Maddie Mullen (25:34).

Taconic: 80. Molly McNeil (24:02); 86. Isabella MacDonald (24:16); 89. Simira Hanger (24:26); 95. Lila Ribero (24:52); 107. Jane Wong (25:31); 112. Reagan Miller (25:58).

 

Division 3B

Wahconah: 47. Madison McCarthy (22:35); 55. Mars Rabuse (22:52); 59. Olivia Langenheim (22:56); 60. Jocelyn Sommers (23:00); 62. Liliana Penna-Ward (23:08); 93. Natylee Martin (26:3); 97. Alexis Olds  (27:10).

 

Division 3C

Hoosac Valley: 33. Hannah Walsh (22:28); 77. Alyssa Garabedian (24:59); 89. Taylor Garabedian (25:36); 102. Natalie Pompi (26:56).

Lee: 20. Anna Martin (21:37); Emily Holian (21:58); 36. Brianna Kelly (22:39); 36. Emma Ranzoni (22:40); 57. Ava Lopez (23:44); 68. Tanya Bannon (24:31); 88. Raeanne Hickson (25:34).

Lenox: 3. Alice Culver (19:07); 15. Elyssa Scrimo (21:15); 16. Audrey Touloukian (21:21); 29. Jessie Scrimo (22:10); 51. Sydney Wilk (23:23); 83. Chloe Young (25:09).

Mount Greylock: 18. Ezra Holzapfel (17:53); 25. Andrew Petropulos (18:10); 36. Oliver Swabey (18:29); 47. Rafael Mellow-Bartels (18:52); 58. Vincent Welch (19:10); 63. Jude Bakija (19:22); 74. Ezekiel Singer (19:46).

 

Division 2B

Pittsfield: 62. Grace Ungewitter (22:39); 77. Sydney Ferris (23:16); 84. Maddy Murphy (23:40); 115. Tess McCluskey (25:00); 125. Julia Baumann (25:19); 144. Isolina Ungewitter (27:10); 149. Madalina Penna (27:44).

 

Division 3A

Monument Mountain: 28. Colby Sweet (18:29); 57. Andrew LaRochelle (19:30); 77. Lucas Faggioni (20:03); 85. Finn Gibbons (20:15); 98. Alex Turner (20:41); 113. Tatum Oates (21:24); 143. Hyatt Tucci (25:03).

Taconic: 32. Cam Bencivenga (18:41); 65. Dillan Norton (19:45); 92. Max Pierce (20:26); 101. Alex Pierce (20:47); 120. Connor Sultaire (21:39); 124. Emmett Krantz (21:58); 129. Anthony Jimenez (22:04).

 

Division 3B

Wahconah: 26. Cadighan Gladu (17:59); 30. Riley Gladu (18:09); 36. Aidan Garcia (18:18); 45. Fritz Sanders (18:41); 46. Lucas Wildrick (18:41); 47. Shaine Dowd Smith (18:48); 67. Cooper Calvert (19:25).

 

Division 3C

Hoosac Valley: 12. Justin Levesque (17:39); 122. Joey McGovern (23:07); 144. Stephen Gage (25:09).

Lee: 37. Josh Perrier (18:32); 46. Aiden Fennelly (18:46); 49. Jacob Bianco (18:54); 68. Matt Kinney (19:37); 73. Ben Cooper (19:42); 111. Kyle Morandi (21:49); 124. Seth Hopkins (23:21).

Lenox: 4. Maxwell Adam (16:43); 5. Dennis Love (16:45); 11. Renzo Vargas (17:30); 17. Cormac Mathews (17:43); 19. Harry Touloukian (17:56); 41. Andy McCormack (18:36); 80. Samuel Geller (20:03).

Mount Everett: 91. Charles Vion (20:25); 113. Micah Ketchen (22:13); 136. Ben Vella (24:26).

Mount Greylock: 2. Kate Swann (19:04); 4. Grace Malone (19:55); 6. Ainsley Abel (20:41); 12. Erin Keating (21:01); 19. Vera de Jong (21:34); 34. Annie Art (22:31); 54. Annie Miller (23:31).

 

Division 2B

Pittsfield: 23. Jack Archey (18:02); 54. Ada Chard (18:55); 129. Lennox Silvestro-Dias (20:47); 159. Don Corbett (22:39); 165. Jonathan Douhan (23:20); 166. Zach Pupo (23:31); 167. Lucas Benoit (23:31).