NORTH ANDOVER — It only took a handful of regular season dual meets for Amherst Regional track and field coach Chris Gould to realize just how special his ‘Canes girls team could be in 2025. After blowing out teams throughout the spring, including rival Northampton in early May, Gould tabbed this Amherst girls squad as the program’s “best team ever.”
He meant every word when he said it then, and Sunday only further solidified Gould’s statement.
The Hurricanes entered Day 2 of the MIAA Division 4 Outdoor Track and Field Championships in first place by two points, with 12 of the weekend’s 19 events still to come – including all three relays, where Amherst excels. Behind gutsy performances from their stellar senior class, and assistance from a couple of fierce freshmen, the ‘Canes (literally) ran away from their competition.
Amherst finished the weekend in first with 87.5 points, securing its first-ever team title at the MIAA Championships. Melrose finished second with 68 points, Holliston grabbed third (59) while Pembroke (fourth, 48) and Newburyport (fifth, 39) rounded out the top five. Northampton was the lone other Hampshire County program competing, and the Blue Devils slotted into 17th with 18 points.
If the Hurricanes weren’t already the greatest team in Amherst Regional history following their win at the Western Massachusetts Championships last weekend, they certainly are now.
“This feels great,” Gould said. “Part of it was convincing the girls to want to win a team title as much as I did. It’s not cool when the coach wants to win more than the athletes do. And they started to increasingly trust each other and their coaches. They totally put it on the line, in every single event, this weekend. I’m so proud of each and every one of them.”
Amherst’s team – numbers-wise – isn’t as large as some of the other teams that competed, but that didn’t stop it. That only meant the Hurricanes had to rely on their athletes to do a little bit of everything.
Senior Moriah Luetjen was one of those who logged a busy afternoon, and it started with a first-place finish in the 400 meters. Luetjen breezed by everyone in the field, finishing over two seconds faster (56.36) than the next finisher – who happened to be sophomore teammate Ololara Baptiste (58.52). Ruby Austin also turned in a strong race in the 400, taking sixth in 1:00.47.
Luetjen then ran in the 4×800-meter relay alongside Brooke Nedeau, Ella Jamate and Skylar Fox less than an hour later, anchoring the team to a second-place finish with a time of 9:42.50. Austin competed in the 4×100 relay with Claire Fortin, Juliana Albo and Ella Austin, coming in fourth (51.57), as well as the 4×400 relay with Fox, Ella Austin and Baptiste. Baptiste turned in a fantastic anchor leg to help Amherst come in first in what was the final event of the day. Their time of 4:00.36 put a perfect bow on the Hurricanes’ big day.
“This is so rewarding,” Luetjen said of the team’s title. “We’ve all worked so hard for this, and it was not necessarily something that was in the books for us this season. We weren’t really focused on it until [Coach Gould] was talking about us potentially being able to win it. Some of us were kind of on the fence about it, but doing it feels really good for all of us. I’m really proud of everybody for how they pulled through.”
With Amherst holding the slim lead entering Sunday, members of the team knew it was a possibility for them to win the team championship considering many of their strong events were still to come. But the only issue was the order of them, as multiple events that their athletes compete in came one after another later in the day.
Following Luetjen, Baptiste and Austin’s battle in the 400, the trio had about a half hour before the beginning of relays. Fox, Ella Austin and Ruby Austin also competed in two relays with limited time in between.
The ‘Canes knew it would be difficult to stay fresh and mentally prepared for each one, that’s what made the taste of victory so sweet.
“I think we all knew we were capable of it, but with the way the events were ordered, there were a lot of people who had to run back-to-back,” Ruby Austin said. “That made a lot of us really stressed. But we pulled it out, and I’m proud that we all came together to do this.”
Amherst also understood that in order to remain in the team lead, big-time performances in the relays were needed.
“It was definitely a lot,” Fox said. “Moriah did the 400 and the 4×8 almost back-to-back, and I did the 4×8 and the 4×4 back-to-back. And those were two events that we knew we needed to get a lot of points in. For me, that was really stressful, because I knew it wasn’t just my coaches or relay teammates relying on me – it was the whole team. We wanted to have a really strong 4×4 like we always do, so we had to make some sacrifices. In the end it paid off, and it’s rewarding.”
Elsewhere, senior Elizabeth Sawicki won the pole vault on Sunday with a height of 9 feet, a new personal best this season, to go along with her fourth-place mark in the pentathlon and fifth-place finish in the 400 hurdles – both of which she achieved on Friday. Sawicki has experienced the lowest of lows and now the highest of highs during her four years with the program. Going out on top is something she never could have imagined.
“It’s incredible,” Sawicki said. “Freshman year, we were doing pretty good, but the last two years were pretty bad. So to come back this year and have an undefeated season is insane, and just to be a part of that with all these great athletes is incredible. Considering on Friday [Coach Gould] was like, ‘Hey, we’re in first right now,’ and we weren’t sure if it was going to hold, everyone had a lot on their shoulders today and coming out on top is just amazing.”
Freshmen Claire Fortin and Juliana Albo each picked up key points for Amherst, as Albo finished in seventh in the high jump (PR 5 feet), eighth in the long jump (17 feet, 6 3/4 inches) and competed in the 4×100 relay while Fortin also ran in the 4×100 relay. Senior Brooke Nedeau ran the mile, grabbing eighth in 5:22.04.
Jeffries highlights strong weekend from Amherst boys
All spring long, any time Hurricanes senior Miles Jeffries picked up his phone, he’d be greeted with the number ‘49’ plastered as his screen saver. His only goal of the outdoor season was to break 50 seconds in the 400 meters.
After an extremely successful high school career on the tennis courts his first three years of high school, Jeffries chose to join the track team this year. He participated in indoor track in the 2023-24 season and fell in love, so he chose to do it again this past winter. Jeffries enjoyed it so much he gave up his favorite sport, tennis, to run outside this spring.
That decision paid off on Sunday, as Jeffries ran a personal-best time of 49.71 seconds to take home first place in the boys 400. It marked the first time in his career Jeffries broke 50, securing a state title in the process.
Mission accomplished.
“It’s been my goal all year for sure,” Jeffries said. “I look at [the number] 49 every time I check my phone. I’ve just been wanting to do this all season. We’ve had a lot of meets in bad weather, so it’s been hard to show out the way that I’ve wanted to. Today was a pretty nice day out, so I wanted to do it here, and make quitting tennis worth it.”
Jeffries’ first-place finish led Amherst to a fifth-place mark with 45 points, finishing behind Wakefield (74), Pembroke (66), Burlington (53) and Ludlow (53).
Logan Alfandari took second in both the discus (162 feet, 7 inches) and shot put (52 feet, 9¾ inches), and the ‘Canes saw a pair of relay teams crack the top 10 on Sunday. Amherst’s 4×800 relay team of Owen Platt, Calvin Miller, Peter Nedeau and Nico Lisle finished seventh (8:34.37) while the 4×100 relay team of Jose Munnoz Gomez, Tylahn Beckett, Insaf Fazal and Rajahni Conyers finished in ninth (45.42).
Top Northampton finishers from Sunday
Maddalena Figueroa-Starr took fifth place in the 400 with a time of 1:00.32, and joined Katherine Munson, Ella Hoogendyk and Daniela Serlin in the 4×400 relay to take seventh in 4:14.66 to round out the girls competitors on Sunday
The Blue Devils boys were led by Owen LacLachlan’s personal record in the 400, as he turned in a 16th-place finish in 53.59. Northampton also finished 12th in the 4×400 relay with Acer Verson, MacLachlan, Henry Loughrey and Alessandro Agliati and 18th in the 4×800 relay with Pranav Belur, Charlie Sidoti, Xander Lane and Justin Zamura Buri.
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