Marblehead girls claim Division 2 crown at Kelley Invitational

Paced by Top 10 efforts by seniors Janaya Randall (3rd, 19:22.5) and Lily Roberts (6th, 19:41.2), Marblehead’s girls cross-country team won the Division 2 title at Saturday’s Frank Kelley Invitational Meet at the Wrentham Development Center via tiebreaker after finishing in a dead heat with Bedford, both teams with 128 points.Marblehead’s sixth finisher, senior Noelle Villa (64th overall) broke the tie by covering the 3.1-mile course in 22:19.6, well ahead of Bedford’s sixth runner.Also scoring for Marblehead were senior Paige Ferrucci (21st, 20:29.5), sophomore Jillian King (45th, 21:45.9) and junior Anna Barrell (53rd, 22:05.1). Their combined efforts were enough to offset the Buccaneers, who had four runners in the top 35 but whose fifth runner finished 56th.”I’m very proud of them. They all ran great and most of them had their best times on this course. Janaya has always been a strong runner for us but Lily (Roberts) has been amazing this season – she really worked very hard in the summer.”Also in Division 2, Swampscott placed 11th with sophomore Isabella Kornitsky (31st, 21:07.8), senior Sarah Kelley (32nd, 21:08.9), junior Alyssa Mauriello (79th, 22:55.4), sophomore Vivien Gere (85th, 23:05.2) and senior Michelle LaConte (104th, 23:52.6).Senior Arianna Maida placed seventh in 19:41.7 to lead Bishop Fenwick to a 12th-place finish. Sophomore Sydney Packard (24th, 20:57.2) also turned in a strong showing for the Crusaders.Lynnfield junior Tia Patterson placed 13th in 20:09.2 while senior Melissa LeFave had the top showing for St. Mary’s.Division 1 GirlsPeabody ran second behind Lowell for the team title, driven Top 10 finishes from junior Lauren Barrett in fifth (19:37), senior Sam Allen in sixth (19:37), and senior Antonia Pagliuca in 10th (19:48). Senior Syndey May (35th, 20:54) and senior Annie Pollock (53rd, 21:24) completed the Tanners’ scorers.Division 1 BoysPeabody powered its way to a second-place finish with 83 points, powered by senior Drew Fossa’s second-place showing in a time of 15:54.6. Freshman Alex Greco (16:30.6) and senior Ben Braz (16:31.0) ran 12th and 13th while junior Dowd Riley (17:00.9) and senior Richie Fournier (17:04.5) were 27th and 29th.Division 2 BoysMarblehead had the area’s best showing, running seventh behind senior Chris Rodts (22nd, 17:13.7), senior Conrad Rousseay (27th, 17:21.7) and sophomore Adam Linsky (48th, 17:47.2).Swampscott ran 10th, sparked by senior Matt Mahoney’s third-place performance in 15:44.4, the day’s top effort by an NEC runner and 35 seconds better than his time from a year ago . Juniors Bennett Smith (17:41.5) and Robert McLaughlin (74th, 18:21.6) ran well.”Our top six ran faster today than they did here last year. We have a long way to get to our goals, but plenty of time to get there. Today was very positive, and the boys are hungry now,” said coach Jeff Bartlett.Ocean State InvitationalSt. John’s placed fourth with 117 points, just two points out of second place. Despite requiring a post-race visit to the medical tent due to dehydration, senior captain Tim Loehner paced the Eagles with an eighth-place effort of 16:23, followed by Liam Dow (14th, 16:30) and Luke Bugler (27th, 16:58).”This is our bye week in the conference and we hope to use it to prepare for a big challenge that we will get from Xaverian a week from Tuesday at Bradley Palmer Park,” said coach John Boyle.