BOSTON — There wasn't much that separated the Beverly, Peabody and Marblehead girls track teams this winter.
Yesterday at the Northeastern Conference indoor championship at the Reggie Lewis Center, the Tanners and the Panthers were only 5-hundreths of a second apart.
Peabody's 4x400 relay anchor Sarah May poured her guts onto the track, closing the gap on Beverly in the final lap of the final race of a spirited meet to give the Tanners the relay title with a time of 4:12.97, the blink of an eye ahead of Beverly's 4:13.02.
The win, a new school record time for the foursome of Catarina Rocha, Heather MacLean, Joanne Frangias and May, lifted Peabody into a tie with Beverly for the league title, as both teams finished with 76.5 points.
"We knew it would be close," said Peabody girls coach Joe Rocha. "That race had a great finish, and there were a lot of great finishes today. The 300, the 600 ... there were a lot of close ones."
Peabody, Beverly and Marblehead all finished 6-1 in the regular season and share the league title. The Magicians were third with 71 points at the league meet, which determines individual champions and there are some bragging rights up for grabs in the team standings, but the main focus is on getting the athletes ready for state competition.
"There were some awesome finishes," said Beverly coach Dave Jellerson. "The whole goal for us is to get as many girls as possible involved with experience on a track like this and get as many girls with medals as we can."
Peabody led the gold medal count with four champions including Catarina Rocha's commanding 2-mile win (10:54) and MacLean's victory in the 300. The Tanners also grabbed some crucial late points from shot put champion Pam Zabala (34 feet, 3 inches).
Marblehead had three event champions. Maura Turbidy won the 600 in 1:42.21, less than a second ahead of Swampscott's Emma Walsh (1:42.84) and May (1:42.87). The Magicians also won the long jump with Olivia Vener leaping 15-feet, 2 inches and took big points in the high jump with champion Lily Cummings (5-feet) and runner-up Kelly Roland (4-10).
Beverly had two champions but thrived on depth with four second place finishes. Katie Pietrini had one of the most impressive runs of the day, blazing her way to the dash title in 7.45. The Panthers other title was in the 4x800 relay while Caitlin Harty (300) and Kristen O'Connor (hurdles) earned silvers.
"Absolutely, a meet like this is going to help get the girls ready for the state meets," said Jellerson.
• • •
The Peabody boys repeated in a dominant effort that saw the Tanners take nine of 12 event championships and 112 total team points. The sprint team set the table for Peabody, with Nat Gaye (6.66) beating Salem's Christian Guzman (6.67) for the dash title in one of the best finishes of the day and senior Austin Brewster running down Beverly's Brendan Flaherty on the last straight-away of the 300 in another exciting finish.
Gaye, Bobby Losanno, Michael Reardon and Brewster teamed to win the 4x200 with the senior captain Brewster chasing down Beverly on the final stretch for another come from behind finish.
"That's how I like to run. I sort of hang in there and try to speed up at the end," said Brewster. "To see so many of our guys take medals was awesome."
Senior Nick Christensen set the school record in the 1000, running away with the NEC title in 2:33.88. T.J. D'Amato won the mile in 4:39 while Peabody also won the 4x00 relay and Austin Butler took the long jump.
"This was a great team effort but the meet was won by our sprinters and the credit goes to the spring coaches, Dave Coleman, Pat Mayo, Matt O'Brien and Steve Smyrnios," said Peabody head coach Fernando Braz. "It's been a long time since we've come to a meet like this and won all those sprinting events."
Peabody finished second in the only two races it didn't win, collecting silver medals in the 600 via senior Nick Ingham (1:26.69) and freshman Drew Fossa in the 2-mile (9:59).
• • •
The Tanners also got a great effort from senior Zach Grube, the only student-athlete to win two individual championships. Grube nosed out Marblehead's Nolan Raimo in the hurdles, sprinting to the line just .02 seconds faster than Raimo after the final hurdle in a photo finish. Grube's time was 7.94 compared to 7.96 for Raimo.
Grube, who won a national title in the emerging elite class last spring, took the NEC high jump title as well with a leap of 6-feet-4-inches.
• • •
The Swampscott boys finished second and Peter Hale ran an outstanding 2-mile, cruising to the league championship in 9:51. The Big Blue had 50 team points and had some strong performances including second in the 4x800, Robert Seymour's third place heave in the shot (44-9) and Nick Hartman's second place effort in the mile (4:41). Declan McClung was third in the 600 (1:28).
Danvers' record breaking junior Joe Manson won the league title in the shot put with a toss of 50 feet, one inch and Marblehead's Danny Plunkett was second at 45 feet, 8 inches.
Marblehead's Nate Fowler (2:41.98) and Danvers' Drew Piazza (2:42.25) finished third and fourth in the 1000.
Beverly won the boys 4x800 relay with a time of 8:56 and Panther Jay Richardson was the runner-up in the high jump, clearing 6-feet.
• • •
Sarah Kelley of Swampscott took the girls mile championship with a time of 5:21, beating out Marblehead's Madeline Piela (5:26) and Peabody's Samantha Allen (5:31).
Danvers freshman Catalina Dominick was the other individual champion, winning the 1000 with a time of 3:07.83. Ashley Brooks shared second in the high jump for the Falcons (4-10).
Melinda Wilson was the runner-up in the shot for the Big Blue, which finished fourth in the girls team standings with 55 points.
