Westfield State senior Amy O’Sullivan ran a personal best time of 22 minutes, 8.1 seconds to place 66th at the 2021 NCAA Division III Women’s Cross Country Championship at EP Tom Sawyer State Park in Louisville, Ky. on Saturday afternoon.
Junior Kassie Rosenbaum of Loras (Iowa) College won the individual title with a fast time of 20:11 after leading the race wire-to-wire, 17 seconds faster than Ari Marks, a senior at Wellesley College.
O’Sullivan, from Greenfield, was 35th at the 1K split in 3:41.3 and 42nd at the 3k split in 10:48.9.
“It was definitely an interesting race,” said O’Sullivan in a press release from Westfield State. “With so many people around you, I was surrounded by about 30 others most of the race, which was different from most of the season, I had to be careful not to get tripped up and to keep up with the other runners around me.”
Tufts University junior Meghan Davis was close behin d O’S ull ivan, as the Mohawk Trail alum and Plainfield resident took 68th overall in Saturday’s race. Davis was just one second behind in 22:09.
A total of 293 of the top athletes in NCAA Division 3 cross country started in the national championship race, with 32 compete teams scoring, plus individual qualifiers like O’Sullivan. Davis and Tufts qualified as a team after winning an NCAA Regional one week earlier.
PrepsDeerfield Academy wins pair of titles
It was a weekend to celebrate at Deerfield Academy, as the Big Green football team won the NEPSAC Class A Mike Silipo Bowl after knocking off Brunswick School, 35-28, on Saturday at Crosby Field in Greenwich, Conn.
The Big Green finished their season 9-1 with the championship game victory. Senior quarterback Liam O’Brien, who has committed to play at Penn, threw two touchdown passes, including a 95-yard score to Alex Haight in the win. The long touchdown broke a 7-7 tie and gave Deerfield a 14-7 advantage with 5:29 left in the second quarter.
With the score tied at 14 and halftime looming, the Big Green struck again. O’Brien completed a short pass to Haight, who tossed it back to Nick Peltekian. Some 55 yards later, the hook-and-lateral resulted in a touchdown with just 18.9 seconds remaining to give Deerfield a 21-14 halftime cushion.
O’Brien made it 28-14 with a 1-yard touchdown run late in the third quarter, and Peltekian capped the day with a 13-yard touchdown run in the fourth to seal the deal. Tailback Matthew Hickey helped chew up clock late in the game.
On Sunday, the Big Green volleyball team brought another title back to Old Deerfield, capturing the NEPSAC Class A championship with a thrilling 3-2 win over top-seeded Loomis Chaffee.
Third-seeded Deerfield got to Sunday’s final thanks to a 3-0 sweep of No. 2 Hopkins School in the semifinal round on Saturday.
NMH boys soccer wins Class A crown
A thriller in Windsor, Conn. saw the Hoggers capture the NEPSAC Class A boys soccer title in penalty kicks over top-seeded Taft School on Sunday at Loomis Chaffee.
No. 3 NMH led 1-0 at halftime before Taft pulled even eight minutes into the second half. The teams played even from there, and after scoreless OT sessions, the Hoggers captured a 3-2 edge in PKs to secure the title.
NMH also used some dramatics to advance to Sunday's final, as it scored a double-overtime goal in the semifinals Saturday to upend No. 2 Worcester Academy, 1-0.
Youth hockeyJamison Baleno found the back of the net twice in FCHA Silver’s 8-6 loss to the Springfield Yellowjackets on Saturday at Collins-Moylan.
Stephen Rich, Ethyn Clayton, Evan Scott and Loki Rhodes each scored for Silver. Jayson Smith had two assists while Hannah Perlberg, Gabe Voudren, Rob Feldman, Jaxon LaVallee, Clayton and Rich each dished an assist. Lucas LaFontaine made 17 saves in goal.
In action Sunday, Chase Zraunig scored two goals and assisted on another in FCHA Green’s 5-3 win over the Pioneer Valley Lightning in a PeeWee contest at Collins-Moylan Arena.
Sam Bucala, Desmond Drake and Stefan Flaska all had goals. Logan Tyler and Nick Constantine notched assists and Ben Johnston got the victory in net.
Elsewhere, the FCHA Dillon Chevrolet PeeWee team dropped a pair of decisions to Brattleboro (2-1) and Amherst (4-2) over the weekend.
Against Brattleboro, Weston Jones tallied with an assist from Amelia Bouchard. Sasha Savinov made 23 saves.
On Sunday against Amherst, Mylena Prunier tallied with assists to Zoey Duda and Lucas Bailey. Savinov made 22 saves.
In other action, the FCHA Gilmore & Farrell Squirts picked up wins over Keene (8-2) and Westfield (11-5).
Asa Bouchard scored five goals to go with two assists against Keene, while Finn Coffin (goal, assist), Bryce Zraunig (two goals, assist), Jakub Constantine (assist) and Preston Charboneau (13 saves) also played key roles.
Against Westfield, Asa Bouchard went for four goals and an assist and Camden Kimball netted a hat trick and also had an assist. Constantine (goal), Coffin (two goals), Sequoia Burek (goal), Fischer Williams (assist) and Charboneau (18 saves) all made big plays.
BowlingShane Furlon and Aimee Furlon rolled the high single score of 112 while Scott Schneider and Kendall Schneider rolled the high triple score of 296 in Scotch Doubles this week at the Shelburne Falls Bowling Alley.
Caitlin Millett had the women’s high single of 140 and Karen Herzog recorded the women’s high triple of 305 in the Monday Mixed League. Earl Carlow had the men’s high single (107) and triple (293) scores.
In the Tuesday Ladies League, Marilyn Wilson tallied the high single (110) and triple (285) scores.
Eric Wasileski rolled the men’s high single (137) and triple (357) scores while Robin Clark had the women’s high single (97) and Angie Clark had the women’s high triple (357) in the Wednesday Mixed League.