Thor Mead heard from the crowd that he was close at the Western Massachusetts Division 2 cross county championships on Saturday.
Nearing the finish line, Mead was among the runners who were in the mix to qualify for the state championships. It was a matter of seconds.
“People were yelling out places,” Mead said. “I’ve never experienced that. To be finishing with the top runners.”
The junior just missed qualifying for states by four places and 10 seconds.
“Qualifying for all-states is a pretty high bar to set for an individual,” Mahar coach Ben Just said. “He came pretty close. Watch out for him next year.”
Mead placed 26th out of 151 runners for Mahar and performed much better than he did at the PVIAC championships two weeks earlier.
“It was cold coming out, but then the sun came out,” Mead said. “It was just a better day than at PVIAC when it was cold and wet. Plus I had a cold with a lot of junk in my lungs. I came in feeling healthy on Saturday.”
Mead finished the 5-kilometer course in 17 minutes, 52 seconds at Stanley Park in Westfield. Mead finished in 18:37 at the PVIAC race.
“I am really happy,” Mead said. “I didn’t expect to be that close.”
Mahar placed 17th out of 21 teams with 457 points and a 21:58 average.
“Our training peaked at the right time,” Just said.
Ed Bennington was the next Senator to cross the finish line at 20:11 good for 77th place.
Alex Plotner (21:58) placed 97th for Mahar.
Rounding out Mahar’s runners were Owen Ryan (143rd, 25:08) and Loren Bennington (144th 25:28).
The individual champion was Chris Vayda of Hampshire Regional, finishing at 16:29.
Mount Greylock won the team competition with 47 points and a 17:17 average between its five runners.
