Amherst Girls XC Win Fifth Consecutive Western Mass Title
Amherst Regional High School varsity girls cross country team at the start of the Class A Western Mass Championship on Nov. 7, 2026. (L-R in Amherst singlets): Maeve Cunningham, Anoushka Sen (w/sunglasses),Ella Austin, Quynh Ly, Marit Macdonald, and Genevieve Dole. Photo: Minh Ly
The Amherst Regional High School Girls Cross Country team won their fifth consecutive Western Massachusetts Class A Title on Saturday, Nov. 7, at Westfield’s Stanley Park with a dominant performance. Tight pack running, with the top five runners finishing within a 56-second spread, helped the Hurricanes edge second-place Northampton 29 to 37 points. West Springfield High School was a distant third with 102 points. Amherst placed all seven of its runners in the top 17. It was the team’s 30th Western Mass Championship in the last 37 years (with no championship meet in 2020 due to the pandemic).
Leading the Hurricanes was junior Marit MacDonald, who finished the 5k race in 3rd place in a time of 19:12. She was followed by junior Genevieve Dole (4th) 19:27, senior Quynh Ly (5th) 19:31, senior Ella Austin (8th) 19:58, senior Anoushka Sen (9th), 20:08, Junior Maeve Cunningham (12th) 20:13, and Senior Ella Jamate (17th) 20:59.
Northampton’s Mairead O’Neil, a senior and defending champion, won the race, finishing almost a minute ahead of West Springfield’s junior, Morgan Marini, in 18:12.
Amherst also won the J.V. race, scoring 34 points to Mt. Greylock’s 37, with 7 runners in the top 12. Amherst sophomore Kristina Barseghyan finished third in 21:08 on the 5k course.
Coach Ron Jacobs was thrilled with the outcome and noted how the entire season had built toward this outstanding team performance. He said:
“This is a really special team, and we have known it since August. Everybody is focused on a common mission, which we describe as a “cultural triangle” of high performance, inclusivity, and curiosity. We have very strong senior leadership, and they work with the coaches to make sure we are staying as close as we can to the center of the triangle. I think our results show we are on the right path. Mentally, physically, and socially, we are entering the post-season in a very good place. “
“The race itself was filled with highlights and great achievements. We won the JV race for the first time since 2023, putting seven athletes in the top 13. Five of those athletes will be back next year. In the varsity race we put six of our athletes in the top 12. I think we have the deepest team in the state for Division 2, which is going to help us a lot when we compete at the state championship in two weeks. But we also have a lot of low sticks this year. Marit Macdonald, Genevieve Dole, Quynh Ly, and Ella Austin have proven all year that they can compete at the front of the race. Anoushka Sen, Maeve Cunningham, and Ella Jamate are all coming on strong, competing with the grit and determination we are going to need if we want to win the state championship in two weeks.”
I do expect that the team will continue to improve throughout the post-season, as we continue to rest and sharpen. We took advantage of a three-week break in racing to do some very high-level training in the lead-up to the postseason. We did our hardest workout of the year eight days before the Western Mass championship meet. I think we will start to see the full benefit from all this work in the next two weeks. We will be formidable.”
The girls hope to qualify for a spot at the Division 2 state championships at the West-Central Division 2C meet on Saturday, Nov. 14. The West-Central meet will be held at the Wrenthem Development Center, and the Amherst Girls will run at 2:00 p.m. The state meet will be held the following Saturday, Nov. 21, at Devens, and if the girls qualify, they will run at 2:00 p.m.
Boys Are Western Mass Runner-Up
The Amherst boys finished second to defending champion Longmeadow, 35 to 64. Northampton was third with 73 points. Amherst’s top finisher was defending individual champion and senior Calvin Miller, who finished 4th in 15:42. He was followed by senior Peter Nedeau (7th) 15:53, sophomore Otis Fairey (15:58), junior Alhassan Abdel-Maksoud (16:57), sophomore Jeremiah Hayslip (17:04), junior Nicholas Workman (17:06) and sophomore Strike Barrett (17:24).
The boys will compete in the West-Central Divisional Championship at the Wrenthem Development Center on Saturday, Nov. 14, at 2:45 p.m. If they qualify for the state meet, they will run again on Saturday, Nov. 21, at Devens at 2:45 p.m.