Travis Ciempa had a very specific goal in mind for his sophomore season of cross country.

He wanted to be named the All-Transcript MVP for the second year in a row. He met that goal.

"We talked about it," Hoosac Valley coach Ron Namislo said. "He asked me what he needed to do and we talked about it. I think he used it for motivation."

This season he ran to three first-place finishes. His lowest regular season finish was fifth place and that occurred in the first race of the year.

He was the top North County runner in both the Western Massachusetts Division II meet and MIAA Division II state championship races. The sophomore took third in Western Mass. and 32nd at states.

"It was definitely motivation for me," Ciempa said. "I did want to be MVP again."

His shining moment came at Hoosac Valley's only home meet of the season. The Hurricanes were unable to run at the school last season because of the construction. Then additions to the campus forced the course to be revamped, resulting in a mostly new course this year. That gave runners an automatic chance to set a course record.

Ciempa wanted the course record.

He captured the record by running to a first place finish in 17 minutes, 8 seconds on Oct. 3.

"I think the highlight of my year was probably beating [Pittsfield's] Dan Brien at our home race," Ciempa said. "At the beginning of the year coach Namislo told us we would have a new course

"I guess throughout the whole season I was getting ready for that race, so I could set the record."

So how does a sophomore earn back-to-back All-Transcript MVPs?

Desire.

"He runs with his heart," Namislo said. "He has natural speed and he's able to get it when he needs it.

"That's the trick. Who can dig down and really get it. He beat a lot of people in the final 800 because of his extra gear."

The ability to break away late comes from the work and dedication the sophomore puts into his sport. He attends summer running camps and is always eager to learn a new stretch or technique that could help him down the road.

"I don't think I practiced as hard last year as I did this year," Ciempa said. "I worked really hard during the summer and this year I practiced really hard with Kalyn [Alibozek]."

Even with several first-place finishes throughout the season, Ciempa really set himself apart from the rest of the North County runners in the postseason.

He took third place overall at Western Mass, beating Mount Greylock's Will Kirby by five seconds. He beat Kirby again at states, this time by 15 seconds.

"It was really even all season and then Travis kind of took over late," Greylock coach Scott Burdick said. "He's a good, solid runner. He's young too, so he's only going to get better in the next couple of years."

Team members are listed in no particular order.	Trevor Ciempa Hoosac Valley "Twenty minutes before Western Mass. we said 'You haven't had a great year ... but you can make up for it with a good race here.' He passed 10 kids and earned a states spot. ... It just shows you how good he's going to be next season if he stays healthy." - coach Ron Namislo	Jared Haley Hoosac Valley "He and Austin really pushed each other and neither one wanted to be beaten by the other one. I like healthy competition on my team and I think it really helped Jared." - coach Ron Namislo	Austin Poulton Hoosac Valley "Austin became our leader this season. He ran all of our stretches and really took that job over right from the start. He got the team warmed up and prepared for practice." - coach Ron Namislo	Archer Greenhalgh Mount Greylock "Archer kind of led the pack early in the season. ... He was the guy really leading our pack early on. Archer was the one in the middle that kind of pulled our pack up." - coach Scott Burdick
Will Kirby Mount Greylock "He was a great leader for us this year. ... What I like the most is he saved his best for last. He ran is best race atWestern Mass. and then again at States. He was always up there near the top." - coach Scott Burdick	Jake Kobrin Mount Greylock "Being our sixth man it made us almost unbeatable. If someone was having a tough day, he was right there to pick up. ... With Jake there it gave us that extra depth most teams don't have." - coach Scott Burdick	Carter Stripp Mount Greylock "He really gave us that one-two punch this year. He made it really tough for teams to beat us because we had that combo that every team needs. To have Carter run where he ran made us very tough." - coach Scott Burdick	Will Nolan Mount Greylock "Along with Jake [Kobrin], Will was just solid all year. They were part of our pack. A lot of people think cross country is an individual sport, but we always do our best to make it a team sport. Will was a big part of that, he was always in our top five." - coach Scott Burdick	Sam Korbin Mount Greylock "As the season went on, Sam really came on. He ended up being our third guy. Sam was one of the reasons why we won Western Mass. because of his big 12th-place finish. He was the bridge between Carter and Will to our pack." - coach Scott Burdick