By RICK WILSON
WATERTOWN — Just as a small group of reporters started to walk away, Shepaug girls cross country coach John Spear had one more thing to offer: “Hey, do you guys know that this is our first title since 1986?”
Everyone in the Berkshire League does now. The Spartans emerged from a wide-open affair with Lewis Mills and Thomaston with an emotional win at the BL championships at Black Rock State Park on Friday.
Spear’s squad nipped Mills, 44-48, while Thomaston placed third with 72 points. On the boys side, Northwestern grabbed its third straight crown, holding off Terryville, 42-48.
While most did not know it had been 32 years since the last Shepaug title, the Spartans were constantly reminded.
“One of our teachers (baseball coach Scott Werkhoven) said good luck to us in school and told us the last time we had won was when he was in high school,” said Erin McGrath. “He believed in us.”
Senior Elisa Afiouni, freshman Eilish Foy and senior two-year captain Aileen Rosa finished second, third and fifth, respectively. McGrath played a major role with her 11th-place finish. She pushed past two Lewis Mills runners at the tail end of the race, which meant the difference between victory and a tie.
“Erin ran the race of her life,” agreed Spear. “She’s a senior and has talked about winning a BL title since day one of her freshman year.”
Spear had a message for McGrath at the 2-mile mark.
“I told her if we wanted to win, she had to pass the pack she was with,” said Speers.
Mission accomplished.
“I knew he wouldn’t have said it if he didn’t believe in me,” said McGrath. “It’s my senior year. I wanted to make the team and school happy.”
Undefeated Northwestern also parlayed its back of the pack into another championship. Terryville took its shot, led by Chris Deforest, who finished second.
“Our 5-6-7 runners ran personal bests, but we have to figure out a way to move them closer,” said Kangaroos co-coach Stephanie Fuller. “We had four of the top 10 (Deforest; Colby Brown, seventh; C.J. Hart, eighth; Conor Garrity, 10th), but (Northwestern is) a good back-running team.”
The Highlanders got 12th- and 14th-place finishes from Chris Grenfell and Jack Kaszas. The top was led by Josh Mangini (third), Alex Beauchene (fourth) and Mike Bobinski (ninth).
“It was a team effort,” said Northwestern coach Alison Beauchene. “We all had to run our best and I’m really proud of them. It’s become part of our culture.”