Agawam Cross Country was big in the 1980s. They just got rid of the program for no known reason. The old course was actually at AHS. They brought XC back to Agawam in 1999. Coach Bill Dillon was given the position of head coach of Boys' and Girls' Cross Country. The home course was created in Robinson State Park and is a 5K.
In 1998 the team was real weak. They had a handful of guys with no experience. They finished near dead last in WMASS and only had two wins. In 1999 the team slightly grew in numbers. Anthony Goodrow was the captain. Anthony was also number one in his class and now attends UC-Berkely in California. He had the home course record of 19:45 for two years. He finished 49th in WMASS his senior year.
In 2000 sophomore Mike DeFilippi came onto the scene. Steve Atkinson also played a key role in the teams wins. Atkinson was the first one to beat Goodrow's home record running a time of 19:10. DeFilippi won 5 races that season. He crushed Atkinson's course record with an 18:23 vs. Minnechaug. He finished 28th in WMASS with an 18:28. He made All League and All WMASS 2nd team.
In 2001 DeFilippi recruited many new faces. Newcomers who made an impact were Mario Maloni, Andrew Wynne, Lou Vivenzio, Randy Carlton and Adam Roy. DeFilippi lead the team to an even 500 record at 7-7. Lou Vivenzio had a breakthrough race in winning the Ken Caoutte JV race at Stanley Park (Now the Duck Races). Drew Wynne also had a nice time at the Franklin Park race. The highlight of the season came at home against Longmeadow. They had crushed us the year before 44-21. They lost the vast majority of their good runners though. They were jerks before the meet and this got us pumped up even more to beat them. We won the meet 26-27. This was huge for us. Injuries and other reasons made the season not nearly as successful as expected though. We finished 14th in WMASS. Mike DeFilippi made the state meet by finishing 13th in WMASS with a 17:57 5K at Northfield.
In 2002 Agawam XC had their first winning season under Coach Dillon. They went 5-3. The leagues were put into two leagues. The north and the south. In our league is Chicopee, Chicopee Comp, Northampton, Amherst, West Springfield, Ludlow, Holyoke and Minnechaug. We lost to Minnechaug, Comp and Amherst. Senior Captain Mike DeFilippi had 5 wins and finished 4th at the Catholic Memorial Invitational at Franking Park. He also finished 8th at PVIAC and 6th in the D1 WMASS championships. He qualified for states for the 2nd year in a row and was selected to the ALL-Scholastic first team. Agawam XC finished 9th in WMASS and 10th at PVIAC. 2002 was a very successful season and the team continues to improve.
In 2003 the team had an excellent season. Junior Kevin Clark broke onto the scene. He finished first in the Duck Races at Stanley Park beating Sabis runner Asif Abdul-Wadud. The team finished 7-1 with the only defeat coming against Amherst at home. Clark finished well at PVIAC and Chris Tierney finished 25th. The team got 10th overall. At WMASS the team finished 8th. Kevin Clark qualified for the State Meet by finishing 11th. Jay Olbrych finished 25th and Chris Tierney was third in 36th. Kevin Clark broke Mike DeFilippi's junior course record by running 17:33. Jay Olbrych broke DeFilippi's sophomore record with a time of 18:18. Jesse Regnier broke DeFilippi's 2002 overall course record by one second in 17:22. The team graduated no seniors.
In 2009 the team had a pretty good season. With strong perfomances coming from seniors Justin Wright, Chris Copleand, Kyle Keely, and junior Anthony Lucci. The team won its first couple of meets, beating Longmeadow and Holyoke. At PVIAC, Justin Wright came in 31st with a time of 17:31 as Agawam finished 8th in varsity. The JV finished 4th, with freshmen Mike Andre cracking the top 10 with a time of 19:00. The team finished 9th in WMass, with senior Justin Wright qualifying for States by finishing 18th.
In 2010 the boys had a pretty solid season. We finished overall with a record of 6-4(2-1 in the division) and tied with Minnechaug for third in the division. Holyoke won the division title with an undefeated record of 10-0. Sophomore Mikie Andre and junior Tyler Roberts both had race victories against Gateway and Belchertown. The teams best regular season meet came against Chicopee Comp, where we took the top 5 spots after Comps first two runners. Tyler Roberts ran the fastest home course time with a time of 18:47. There were injuries to Tyler Roberts and Ricky Schoolcraft, another point running junior, right before PVIAC which hurt our placement. However in the PVIAC championship we might have had the wrong cards dealt, but we played the best hand we could with a strong Junior Varsity team with a 5th place finish. The varsity finished 14th out 32 teams. Mikie Andre ran a PR of 17:26, Ben Parzich with 18:13, Anthony Lucci with 18:17, and Mike O'Conor who ran an impressive out of the hat time in the JV race with a time of 18:41. Other sophomores that made an impression were Kevin Urban with 19:14, Dom Groux with 19:22, Dennis Reardon with 19:45, and Chad Joyal, a young freshman with a respectable time of 19:36. Tyler Roberts and Ricky Schoolcraft returned for WMass. At the Wmass Championship, we placed 11th out of 21 teams. Mikie Andre came in 28th and first for Agawam with 17:40,Tyler Roberts came in 53rd with 18:26, while Anthony Lucci and Ben Parzich came in 62nd(18:44) and 66th(18:52). The team did much better than expected.
In 2011 the boys endured a much better season than recent years. The team finished third in the division for the second straight year with a record of 8-4. We started off relatively slow, with ankle injuries hindering the perfomances of upperclassmen Mike Andre and Ricky Schoolcraft and by facing tough teams in Westfield, Holyoke and Amherst the first three meets. We had a very dominant day at the Duck Races, with Mike Andre, Tyler Roberts, Ben Parzich, and Ricky Schoolcraft making the top ten. These top 4 were Agawam's strength throughout the season. We caught fire around the West Springfield Meet, and were undeafeated for the rest of the season. Mike Andre won two races, one of which was the final home course meet in which he set the junior course record with a time of 17:27. Breaking the previous record held by Kevin Clark. Ben Parzich, a junior, managed to run a 17:57 and take second place. Seniors Ricky Schoolcraft and Tyler Roberts were close to breaking 18. Juniors Kevin Urban and Michael O Connor both tied for the next place, getting times of 19:01. Agawam had its best race at PVIAC, where Mike Andre ran an amazing time of 16:08. Tyler Roberts was next in 16:47, and Ben Parzich at 16:55. Ricky Schoolcraft was close at 17:18. Michael O Connor and Kevin Urban tied for the exact same time again, running 18:25. All of the lower Varsity were caught in a fall at the beginning stampede. Junior newcomer Jeremy Kapinos ran a good time of 18:41. Dom Groux was right behind him with a time of 18:43. Sophomore Patrick Rieker ran well, running a time of 19:18. We finished seventh overall at PVIAC. WMass was difficult, but Mike Andre ran well to a top indivual performance to qualify for the state meet. Next year, we'll be losing Tyler and Ricky, but will still have the rest of our junior top 7.