MEDFORD — Frontier’s Ben Cachiguango and Mahar’s Mitchell Krasco have been battling it out on the track throughout their high school careers. 

It only made sense that the 110-meter hurdles finals at the MIAA Division 6 Track & Field Championships at Tufts University came down to the two seniors. 

Cachiguagno entered the meet as the top seed but in the preliminary race, it was Krasco who finished with the top time to enter the finals as the favorite. Cachiguango didn’t run his best in the prelim, earning the last qualifying spot in lane eight. 

Cachiguango and Krasco were side-by-side throughout the final run, both sprinting to the finish line at nearly the same time. 

“I saw Mitch nearly the entire race,” Cachiguango said. “I was looking straight and saw [he was] right there.” 

“I didn’t see Ben until the final four hurdles then I just saw the red [uniform] come running by,” Krasco added. “I thought ‘no way.’”

Cachiguango beat Krasco to the finish line by just 0.12 seconds, capturing the state title with a time of 15.25 seconds. Krasco took second with a time of 15.37 seconds. 

“It feels amazing,” Cachiguango said. “It was a great race.” 

It’s the second state title for Cachiguango this week, as he took first and set a meet record in the 400 hurdles on Friday. 

“It’s absolutely amazing,” Cachiguango said. “Getting two golds at states means so much to me. When I was injured I couldn’t run so this feels great today.” 

Krasco also left Tufts a state champion, capturing a first place title in the triple jump on Friday with a leap of 47 feet, 6.5 inches. 

“It was a crazy jump,” Krasco said. “I got it on my fifth attempt. I was getting in my head too much because I couldn’t stick my landings. My right hip and both my shins were hurting so much. On the fifth attempt, I cleared out the noise, stayed focused and did what I could do.” 

The Pioneer girls track team has had an outstanding season and Natalie Rios capped it off with a great performance in the girls javelin on Sunday. 

Rios went into the day as the No. 2 seed in the event but came out with a toss of 120 feet, 8 inches, which secured her first place on the day. 

The sophomore won the event by nearly 10 feet, with South Hadley’s Aimee George taking second (110-11). 

“It feels great,” Rios said. “I was consistent with my throwing. I felt good out there.” 

Frontier’s Evan Hedlund has been chasing Monument Mountain’s Everett Pacheco in the mile and 2 mile, Pacheco winning the 2 mile on Friday while Hedlund placed third. 

While Pacheco was the heavy favorite in the mile on Sunday, Hedlund gave him as close of a race as he ever has. 

The two were neck-and-neck throughout the four laps around the track and into the final stretch of the race. With both sprinting to the finish line, the two crossed at nearly the same time. Pacheco was a hair ahead and won with a time of 4:19.16 while Hedlund took second with a run of 4:19.49. 

“I know Everett has been miles ahead of everyone I raced this year in terms of time,” Hedlund said. “There were huge gaps, especially two days ago in the two-mile. My PR since March in the mile has been 4:25 in my first race of the season so I wasn’t really close to where he was going in. I was just chasing a time anything under 4:20 all year.” 

Hedlund has had the goal of breaking 4:20 in the mile for a long time and though he didn’t get the first place medal, he was proud to have accomplished the feat Sunday. 

“Since eighth grade, I’ve been thinking I have a real chance to go to a Power Five school if I can break 4:20 my sophomore year,” Hedlund said. “I hadn’t broken it yet and this was my last hurrah. Everett was there the whole time and he pushed me. He’s been close enough where I can see him but he was miles better. That pushed me and I feel great about this.”

It wasn’t the only medal Hedlund won on Sunday. Along with Charlie Dennis, Gus Radner and Luke Howard, the Frontier 4x800-meter relay team earned first place with a time of 8:22.33. 

“It was incredible,” Dennis said. “All credit to Luke Howard, our second runner. He took us from third to last all the way to first. Evan extended the lead and I kept it. Great race from us. We’ve been talking about this race for two years now. It feels great to finally bring it home.” 

“I was using the mile as motivation to come back,” Hedlund added. “Two years ago I got outkicked as anchor and we got out of medal contention. It lit a fire under us. We knew we could win this.” 

For the Frontier girls, Hannah Davis came in 11th in the 100 hurdles (17.17) and 14th in long jump (15-6), Josie Fosnot placed 12th in the 400 (1:02.39), Mary Burt took sixth in high jump (4-10), Bailey Cusson placed fifth in javelin (103-0), Lilly Novak took 15th in javelin (90-3) and fourth in shot put (31-7.25), Olive Klaus took eighth in pole vault (8-6) and Elsa Brown came in ninth in pole vault (8-0). The Redhawk team of Madelyn Antes, Phoebe Radner, Addie Morrey and Josie Fosnot took seventh in the 4x400 (4:21.28) and the 4x400 team of Sylvie Dibartolomeo, Mara Allium, Radner and Morey came in sixth (10:43.66). 

For the Frontier boys, Adrien Pazmandy placed 14th in the 400 (52.58), Ian Paciorek took 15th in the 400 (52.60) and Julian Adams placed eighth in javelin (146-1). The Redhawk 4x400 team of Pazmandy, Paciorek, Cachiguango and Garrett Dredge placed eighth (3:37.30).  

For Mohawk Trail, Zephyr Jetzon came in 19 in the girls 100 (13.92) and 20th in long jump (15-2), Rex Kuoppala came in 25 in the boys mile (4:53.77), Virginia Krezmien placed 19 in the girls mile (5:41.75), Chay Mojallali earned fourth in boys high jump (6-2), Morgan Raffa placed sixth in javelin (101-10). The Warrior girls 4x800 team of Krezmien, Natalie den Ouden, Natalie Lanoue and Anya Read took ninth (10:53.66), the girls 4x100 team took 14th (53.92) and the girls 4x400 team came in 13th. 

For Greenfield, Jack Laurie set a personal record in the javelin with a toss of 152-9 to take second place while also placing 23rd in the boys 100 (12.23). Mason Youmell took 16th in the boys 110 hurdles (16.98), Krish Patel came in sixth in boys high jump (5-10), Erik Martineau came in 13th in the boys high jump (5-8), Jon Breor took 18th in boys javelin (118-3) while the Green Wave boys 4x100 relay team of Laurie, Kymel Ramsey, Patel and Caleb Murray came in seventh (45.21). 

For Mahar, Mathieu Soucy took 11th in the boys 400 (52.08), Stellina Moore came in fourth in girls pole vault (9-0) and Taylor Paluk placed 14th in girls pole vault (7-6). The Senator 4x100 boys relay team took 21st (47.77) and its 4x400 team of Krasco, Daniel Finch, Danny Quigley and Soucy came in 10th (3:37.96). 

For Pioneer, Emmanuelle Flagollet placed 14th in the girls 100 hurdles (17.59) and 11th in the 400 hurdles (1:11.66), Dani Teace placed 26 in the girls 100 (14.24), Louise Flagollet came in ninth in the girls 400 (1:02.03) and sixth in the high jump (4-10) and Sahana Heilman took 26th in the girls long jump (14-9.5). 

Athol’s Nicholas Leblanc placed 11th in boys shot put (43-1.25) while Karleigh Chase came in 11th in girls shot put (28-8.5).