The Division 3 Championships races will take place this Saturday at Willard Field in Fort Devens, offering us another preview of the course before the Meet of Champions the following week. We have many returning individual champs and team champs looking to hold onto their crowns from rising challengers. Before we dive in there were some realignments within the MIAA, so some schools are in now in different divisions and classes.
Division 3A
Girls
Defending champ Katherine Murray leads 2024 Champs Norwell in their quest for another 3A title. Murray has run 18:04 this season and has experience on this course from the Meet of Champs last year. She has three major wins this season: Frank Kelly, Bay State, and the South Shore League Championships. Teammate Audrey Birtwell is favored to finish in second place, making Norwell the odds-on favorite for the team title again. Also watch out for Gabrielle Holdsworth of East Bridgewater. As just an eighth grader she is the definition of an up and comer. Holdsworth has run 19:16 this season for the Vikings.
Greater Lowell Tech and Sandwich will be in the mix for the team title as well. Lillian Zurkis of Greater Lowell and Kylee Beaudoin of Sandwich will fight for a spot on the podium to help their team overcome the defending champs.
Boys
The Greater Lowell Tech Boys were runner up last year and are poised to raise the team title in 2025. Maurice King Jr and Matthew Guerin have been two of the fastest runners in 3A this season, having run 16:15 and 16:20 this season. Coleman McCarthy of East Bridgewater will look to lead the Vikings to an upset win. Teammate Benjamin Levesque was ninth last season giving the Vikings a strong 1-2.
Defending champ John Doherty of Norwell returns with his eye on the prize again, although he’ll have his work cut out for him. Doherty was runner up at the South Shore League championships just last week. However, Pittsfield’s Cohen Zahn has emerged as a front runner. Last week, Zahn ran to a PR of 15:59 at the Western Mass Championships. As it stands, this one is tough to call, so you’ll want to make sure you watch to the end.
Division 3B
Girls
Defending champs Hamilton-Wenham sit at #14 in our Power Rankings and have only gotten better as the season progressed. Last year, Grace Rich was runner up in 18:34 and has looked even better this season. She’s coming off a win at the Cape Anne League Championships but her most impressive run may have been at the Deven’s Pre-Championship Classic, where she was runner up in 18:58. Teammate Asa Labell wasn’t far behind in fourth place, and was runner up at the Cape Anne League. As a team, they finished second behind a very strong Winchester at the Pre-Championship Race. They won’t be looking for second here. Runner up last year, Hampshire Regional, has looked strong all season as well and are led by Kathleen Barry.
The biggest challenge to Hamilton-Wenham controlling the race will be Monument Mountain’s Amelia Desilets. After finishing third at this race last year, Desilets has emerged as one of the best runners in the state. She’s one of nine runners that have cracked 18 minutes this season, running 17:55 at Twilight. Given that Rich and Labell can work together, this sets up as one of the best races of the weekend.
Boys
The Boys 3B race should be close across the board. After finishing runner up last season, 2025 may be Hampshire Regional’s year. They’re coming off a strong run at the Western Mass Championships where they won the B race. They were led by Oscar Schiff, who cracked 16 minutes for the first time, and was followed by teammate Owen Cubi in 16:09. Don’t count out Littleton or defending champs Hamilton Wenham.
Like the girl’s race, the boys run for the individual title will be one of the best this weekend. It’s hard to go against defending Division 3 Meet of Champions winner Everett Pachecho of Monument Mountain. After winning Ocean State earlier this season, he had a strong claim as the top runner in the state. However, he’s only raced once since then at the Western Mass Championships. Perhaps he’s dealing with an injury. That opens the door for Frontier Regional’s Even Hedlund. He was third last season and has run 15:33 this year. No matter what it should be a great battle up front.
Division 3C
Girls
Mt Greylock returns this season looking to flip the script on defending champs Bromfield. After a runner up finish last season, Mt Greylock is poised to reverse their fortunes from last season as they have one of the deepest teams in the division. They’re coming off a win at the Western Mass Championships where they topped Hampshire. At that meet, top runner Cornelia Swabey ran 19:43. Keep an eye on sophomore Josephine Bay, who was their top runner last year.
Don’t count out Bromfield though. Rosie Bradley is the #3 returner from last year’s race where she was fourth. She’s run 18:26 this season.
The runner to watch is Emma Genovese of Millis. As just an eighth grader last season she was runner up. This year she has run 18:17 as one of the fastest freshmen in the state, and she enters this weekend as the favorite. Keep an eye out for defending champ Cameron Davis. Davis was one of the best runners across the state last year with a 17:43 PR but has only raced once this season. Hopefully we’ll see her on Saturday.
Boys
Defending Champs Paker Charter Essential are back and just as strong as last year. They probably won’t duplicate their score of 25, but they are the favorites once again. It’s hard to doubt them when there’s a strong chance they go 1-2. Senior Nathaniel Henshaw and freshmen Jett Johnson are coming off an incredible 1-2 finish at the CMAC North Division Championships on the same course. Henshaw has run 15:41 this season, while Johnson has run 15:46, making him one of the top freshmen in the state.
However, Johnson will have to have a strong run just be the top freshmen in this race, as Hopedale freshmen Quinn Cook has had an outstanding season as well. Cook has run 15:57 this season, but his best performance came at the Catholic Memorial Invite where he finished seventh overall in 16:06.
Bromfield will challenge Parker Charter for the team title. Ben McWaters has had a great season thus far, running 15:47. Watch out for Benjamin Harwood of Lenox as well. Harwood has run 15:45 and won the Ted Dutkiewicz Invitational earlier this year.
