Jean DePlacido

Former Peabody High lacrosse teammates Spencer Rennick and Greg Welch found themselves on opposite teams for the New England Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association Senior All-Star Game recently at Harvard Stadium.

The showcase of talent from all three college divisions gave seniors one last opportunity to shine on the lacrosse field.

Welch, a captain at Springfield College, scored four goals and had an assist for the West squad, while Rennick, a standout at the University of Southern New Hampshire, scored a goal for the victorious East team.

"It was a fun game and a good way to end my career," said Rennick, a 2004 Peabody High graduate who was a year behind Welch in high school.

"After one of my coaches called me about playing, a friend told me to go on-line to look at the roster. That's when I saw Greg's name on the other team, and I called him up. We did a lot of trash talking during the game; all in good fun. He had an awesome game with four goals, but we won, 12-10."

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Melissa Kostan wrapped up her stellar track career at Sacred Heart University in Connecticut by playing a key role in the Pioneers' first-ever Northeast Conference championship. She qualified for the ECACs in the 400 meter hurdles and went to the NCAA East Regionals at Florida State University in Tallahassee last weekend.

"It was a great time. I was very happy to be at the NCAAs for the final event of my college career," said Kostan, a former Salem High star. "I won the 400 hurdles at the conference meet (1:01.86), which was good enough to qualify. I didn't run my fastest at NCAAs after messing up on one of the hurdles near the end, but I still had a pretty good race.

Kostan and her fellow Pioneers who went to Tallahassee left on a Wednesday and returned five days later. The Sacred Heart men's 4x100 relay team won their race, and another Pioneer male qualified for Nationals during the trip, said Kostan.

"I had already graduated, so this was a bonus meet," she said. "When we got back, my events coach told everybody to take a month off and then start up again — that's when it hit me that it is over for me."

Both the Sacred Heart men and women won the NEC this spring. That was a totally new experience for the women.

"Since I've been here we have struggled, always finishing in the bottom tier. My freshman year it was sixth, then fifth, fourth, and (last) indoors we were third, so we were making steady progress," said Kostan. "Everybody had an awesome meet; we finally did it. Our coach, Christian Morrison, was so happy; it was great to be able to do it for him."

Kostan qualified for the ECAC Meet both indoors and outdoors in the 400 hurdles. She just missed making the qualifying time for 100 hurdles by a second despite having a personal best time that was a full second over last year's best.

"I wound up not going to ECACs this spring because of graduation the same time, but I did qualify in the heptathlon and 400 hurdles," said Kostan, who was second in the 100 meter hurdles (14.59) and sixth in the long jump (17-61/4), scoring valuable points to help win the conference title. "I also had personal bests in both the 100 and 400 hurdles (61.64) which was a good way to finish.

"I'm going to stay at school and work at the gym this summer, because I'm coming back in the fall to start my Masters in occupational therapy. I'm hoping to get a graduate assistant position at the gym and also help with the track team as a volunteer."

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Andrew Belmonte received the Roy A. Ilg Jr. Award for athletic achievement, leadership and sportsmanship at Lawrence Academy. It is given to the school's top male athlete each year.

Belmonte, a football, basketball and baseball standout from Beverly who is going to Bowdoin College in the fall to play football and baseball, was also chosen to play in the Harry Agganis Football Classic next month.

This is a very special honor for Belmonte, who is following his father Anthony's football footsteps. Anthony was a fullback/linebacker for coach Silvio Cella on the 1973 Revere Patriots' Super Bowl team. Now 34 years later, his son will carry on the family tradition.

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Samantha Terenzoni, catcher for the Peabody High softball team, will continue her career at Eastern University in Pennsylvania.

Terenzoni belted a two-run homer and collected two other hits in the Tanners' 5-4 loss to Methuen in the North quarterfinals.

"It is right outside Philadelphia," said Terenzoni, who will be an elementary education major at Eastern University. "I talked to the coach, and although they already have a catcher I was told I'll most likely get some playing time. I'm hoping I'll be the backup catcher and do whatever I can to help the team."

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Swampscott's Tim Kiely, the staff ace of Division 3 College World Series champion Trinity (Conn.) College, has been named to the New England Intercollegiate Baseball Association College All-Star Team that will play at Fenway Park next Saturday. The Division 1 stars will take on a combined Division 2-3 squad beginning at noon.

Prior to the game the Teams of The Year from each division will be honored, with Kiely's Bantams chosen as the Division 3 selection. In addition, Trinity head coach Bill Decker will be honored as the Division 3 Coach of the Year.

This is the latest in a long list of honors for Kiely, who was the New England Small College Athletic Conference Pitcher of the Year, All-New England First Team and Pitcher of the Year, a D3baseball.com All-American, American Baseball Coaches Association All-American, and named to the All-Tournament Team for the College World Series this spring.

Jean DePlacido is a part-time writer and columnist for The Salem News. Contact her at jmdeplacido@aol.com.