Indoor track: Hampshire, Northampton start season strong at PVIAC Meet No. 1 (PHOTOS)
Published: 12-12-2024 8:47 PM |
NORTHAMPTON — Oscar Schiff had been at the front of the pack for much of the boys 2-mile race during the early session of the first PVIAC indoor track meet of the season on Thursday afternoon, but Longmeadow’s Henry Sacco passed Schiff, a Hampshire Regional junior, as they rounded the corner and headed down the final stretch.
Schiff dug deep, finding whatever energy he had left after running 15 3/4 laps. He lasered his focus and took off, reaching a full sprint to retake the lead as the two approached the finish line. Schiff’s chest was tilted forward just enough to edge out Sacco for the win, and his time of 10 minutes, 27.42 seconds beat Sacco by only 0.04 seconds in a thrilling finish at Smith College.
Although it wasn’t a personal best for Schiff, he pumped his fist in the air after the race – knowing he had started off his indoor junior year with a bang.
“[Sacco] kept coming up behind me, and I was trying to keep in front of him,” Schiff said. “Then he passed me. But I saw him start to ease off a little at the end and I kept going hard, and I caught him at the line. I could feel that I leaned further. It wasn’t a PR, but it was definitely a good effort. I honestly care more about winning than PR’ing. Because if I run hard enough to win, I often PR. I’m happy with it, honestly.”
Schiff, who wants to break the 10-minute mark this winter, is one of the top long distance runners the Raiders have this season – which says a lot considering the school seems to have a pack of terrific distance runners every year. Alongside Schiff on the boys side, Owen Cubi (fourth, 4:50.74 in mile), Jack Laliberte (15th, 5:17.01 in mile), Aidan Conklin (ninth, 1:36.59 in 600, 10th, 17 feet, 5 inches in long jump) and Nicholas Jones (eighth, 3:01.48 in 1,000) are all expected to have strong seasons for Hampshire.
Kathleen Barry carried over her strong cross country season into the winter, as she raced to a second-place finish in the 2-mile with a time of 12:35.88. She followed that up with a sixth-place mark (3:40.06) in the 1,000. Barry leads a talented Hampshire girls team that consists of multiple strong athletes. Gabriella Dybacki (fourth, 1:58.75 in 600), Keegan Butler (fifth, 3:39.31 in 1,000), Elisabeth Sturtevant (seventh, 2:04.12 in 600), Talia Craig (seventh, 13:58.24 in 2-mile) Bethany Tobiasz (eighth, 48.06 in 300) and Natalie Dunlap (ninth, 6:15.35 in mile) all had solid performances on Thursday.
Head coach Stetson Arnold doesn’t necessarily expect to see perfect results in the month of December, especially not the first meet of the year, but he was impressed with what he saw on Thursday. Arnold breaks the year down into three phases: December, January and February. The first phase is about each athlete getting a feel for their event and learning what they need to improve. The second is about taking those steps to get better and show progress. And the third is when it all comes together in time for the Western Mass. and state championship meets.
“It’s so early, so we really don’t know where we’re at yet,” Arnold said. “Right now, we’re trying to lay down the time that we can improve on, and eventually, hopefully, we’ll be ready to go later in the season. There are three sections in the season. You want to be hitting the stride in February. But we have seen some pretty decent times so far in December.”
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Hampshire defeated Mahar and Mohawk Trail in its two dual meets Thursday at Smith College.
Northampton was the only other Hampshire County school in action during the early session on Thursday, and the Blue Devils boys beat Sci-Tech while the girls lost to East Longmeadow in a close battle. Amherst and Frontier competed in the late session, and a recap of their performances is available online (gazettenet.com/sports). South Hadley and Holyoke opened their indoor seasons with a bye.
Ryland Breen won the 300 in a time of 37.79, and the senior sprinter is someone coach Caroline Clark, a former cross country runner at UMass, said is going to have a standout season for Northampton. Dashiell Kruckemeyer (fourth, 2:58.75 in 1,000), Owen MacLachlan (fifth, 38.87 in 300), Gus Frey (11th, 5:06.39 in mile) and Henry and Owen Daggett, who didn’t compete on Thursday, are names to keep an eye on for the Blue Devils moving forward as well.
Like the Daggett brothers, the O’Neil sisters (Maeve and Mairead) also took the first meet off – although they were there supporting their teammates. Camilla Brewer cracked the 10-second mark in the 55-meter hurdles, finishing third with a time of 9.99. Elsewhere, Katherine Munson (second, 1:52.92 in 600), Charlotte Shimpach (fourth, 13:19.82 in 2-mile), Breanna Hensley (fifth, 13:44.09 in 2-mile), Emmi Warren (sixth, 13:54.10 in 2-mile), Maddalena Figueroa-Starr (fourth, 45.88 in 300) and Ella Hoogendyk (seventh, 25-00.50 in shot put) all did well for Northampton.
Maeve O’Neil, a senior leader for the Blue Devils, is expected to have a huge season. One of her main focuses, however, is helping the younger athletes transition into the sport smoothly.
“It’s really great, and I love the freshmen this year,” O’Neil said. “I like being able to help them relax, and understand that it’s not the end of the world if they don’t do well. And if they do good, I make sure they know that’s really amazing. I helped some of the girls who never ran the mile warm up [today], and helped them get in the right mindset. They all did really great.”
The start of this indoor season came a bit earlier than previous years, and with Northampton’s roster featuring so many new faces, Clark’s goal is to guide the newcomers through these first few weeks to get them in the flow of things.
“This meet is earlier than in the past, so we’re giving people some more time to get into shape,” Clark said. “We have a lot of newbies on the team, so my hope for them is to get them more involved in the sport and see if this is something they really want to pursue.”