Cross country: Div. 3 state qualifier meet set for Saturday at Northfield Mountain

Greenfield’s Jackson Caron competes during the Western Mass. Championships at Stanley Park in Westfield last month. The Green Wave will compete in Saturday’s MIAA Division 3 qualifier at Northfield Mountain.

Greenfield’s Jackson Caron competes during the Western Mass. Championships at Stanley Park in Westfield last month. The Green Wave will compete in Saturday’s MIAA Division 3 qualifier at Northfield Mountain. STAFF PHOTO/JEFF LAJOIE

By THOMAS JOHNSTON

Staff Writer

Published: 11-10-2023 4:43 PM

Modified: 11-10-2023 4:44 PM


The top Division 3 high school cross country runners in the Commonwealth will travel to Northfield Mountain Recreation Center on Saturday to compete in the MIAA Div. 3 state qualifier. 

The meet will be contested with three boys and three girls waves, with the boys 3A group kicking things off at 11 a.m. before the girls 3A group takes off at 11:45. 

The B boys group will kick off at 12:30 p.m., with Frontier — the Pioneer League North winner — in that grouping. Oliver Brown, Brendan Carey, Charles Dennis, AJ Desmond, Evan Hedlund, Luke Howard, Caleb Libbey, Amory Maxey, Leland Murphy and Adam Paul will be running for the Redhawks. 

The B girls wave will take off at 1:15 p.m. followed by the C boys wave — which includes Greenfield, Mahar and Mohawk Trail — at 2 p.m. Dylan Breiwick, Jackson Caron, John Caron, Ryan Pedigree, Alex Scotera, Javion Williams, Nate Woodard and Mason Youmell will represent the Green Wave, Marshall Ames, Solomon Burke, Josiah Cardona, Aiden Drake, Jeffrey LaPlante and Michael LaPlante are running for the Senators while Leo Boltz, Aidan Gauthier, Vincent Gauthier, Peter Healy, Rex Kuoppala, Aymeric Loucka and Carson Richardson are competing for the Warriors. 

The C girls wave will close out the meet at 2:45, with three Recorder area schools running in that group. Frontier, which went unbeaten during the season and won the Pioneer League North, will have Mary Burt, Liv Christensen, Maia Christensen, Sylvie DiBartolomeo, Leah Gump, Sasha Malo, Una Millettte, Kiera Nugent, Nicole Plasse and Phoebe Radner running on Saturday. 

Lillianna Badillo, Isabella Ekblom, Alice Fortin, Ava Fortin, Rose Fortin, Wednesday Passiglia, Layla Prescott and Tessie Richard will run for the Green Wave while Valerie Bzomowski, Virginia Krezmien, Natalie Lanoue, Katie Osterman, Anya Read and Ettalynn Thompson will run for the Warriors. 

For scoring purposes, the first five boys/girls to finish will score for their schools. The Division 3 state championship, which takes place Nov. 18, will comprise the top seven teams from waves A, B and C and the top 10 individuals from waves A, B and C who aren’t on one of the qualifying teams.

The fastest eighth placed team from wave A, B and C will also qualify as the first wild card, as will the fastest team from the remaining two eighth place teams and the ninth place finishing team immediately behind the first wild card team. 

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At the Western Mass. Championships, the Frontier girls placed third, Mohawk Trail took fifth and Greenfield came in 18th in Class B. On the boys side Frontier came in fifth, Mohawk Trail took seventh, Greenfield came in 10th while Mahar took 23rd.