The Hamilton-Wenham girls cross country team may have fallen short in their bid to defend their all-state title from a year ago, but overall it was a very solid day for the Generals.
The girls' second place finish combined with the boys team's fifth-place finish was the best overall day the Hamilton-Wenham program has ever had.
"We had two excellent weeks of training and when they train well, they expect to run well," Hamilton-Wenham coach Steve Sawyer said. "It was two big-time team performances."
Bishop Feehan captured the Division 2 girls title, edging the Generals 45-70. Alison Lanois, who recently recovered from the swine flu, placed fourth in 19:36.2, while Kristen Ashley also earned state all-star status with an 11th-place finish in 20:02.5.
Emily Senning (17th), Cyrena Shiland (30th) and Kerry Phelan (49th) also ran well for the Generals.
On the boys' side, Conor Lyons led the way, placing 10th in 17:02.7 to become an all star. Chris Benevento also looked good, finishing 22nd in 17:23.5.
Swampscott girls finish 7th at All States: Senior Lindsey Walsh captured second place overall for Division 2 with the fourth best time (19:11) of the day for all Divisions. Fellow Senior Amelia Antrim took 48th overall with a time of 21:23 which was 40 seconds better than her previous personal best for the course. The Big Blue finished 32-3 in the Northeast Conference in Walsh and Antrim's four years at Swampscott. Hannah King also had an impressive outing as the sophomore finished 80th with a time of 22:06 for the Big Blue.
dyer excels for danvers: Sophomore Haley Dyer placed 29th in 20:50 as the lone representative from Danvers.
Eagles finish 5th at State Championships: On a day in which many of the State's top runners struggled, St. John's Prep runner A.J. Rossi captured 23rd place overall with a time of 17:03 as the Eagles took 5th place in a very tightly contested race. Junior Jarret Harrigan (17:12) was right behind Rossi at 27th place while John Flanagan (17:29) was 50th, Ben Halpin (17:32) finished 53rd, and Erik Haggstrom (18:05) came in 93rd place for the Eagles.
