Peabody boys, Beverly girls win NEC cross country meet

IPSWICH — The best that the Northeastern Conference has to offer in cross-country was on display Saturday at Bradley Palmer State Park at the annual NEC Open. And as it turned out, the teams that dominated the dual meet season were the ones who contended for the team title.The Peabody boys took three of the top five spots and six of the top 20 in all as they easily outdistanced Marblehead by 20 points (31-51) to claim the team title. On the girls side, it was a battle between NEC North champion Beverly and NEC South champ Marblehead.In the end, it was the Panthers’ depth that ruled the day as Beverly put all five of its scoring runners in the top 14 places and had six of the top 20 in all as they bested the Magicians by 12 points for the title. Peabody was third as the three schools combined to monopolize almost the entire top 20.The girls were up first on Saturday and the race was close all the way with Marblehead’s Sarah Oliver having the better kick down the stretch to take the individual title in 19:54, five second better than Beverly’s Julia Curtin.After Gloucester’s Christina Jones (20:02) and Carly Curcuru (20:04), the depth of the Panthers began to pay off. Marblehead’s Grace Maguire was fifth (20:16) but five of the next 10 spots went to Beverly while Marblehead had only one other runner in the top 10 in Jillian King (21:38).Peabody’s Lauren Barrett (21:03) and Jessica Ostraski (21:06) finished eighth and ninth overall with teammate Emily Christiansen in 11th (21:39). Swampscott’s Veronica Rizzo was 17th (22:27) with teammate Alyssa Mauriello also cracking the top 20 in 19th (22:42). Classical’s Laurie Rodriguez finished 38th (25:23).The boys race saw the heavy hitters run to the front and stay there with the likes of Marblehead’s A.J. Ernst and Jared Kokinos joined by Peabody’s Marcelo Rocha, Riley Dowd and Gloucester’s Everest Crawford.In the end, it was Ernst who added another notch to his already loaded resume from this season as he pulled away in the second half of the race to take the individual title in 16:04. But it was the Tanners excellent depth that would shine through.Rocha (16:20) and Dowd (16:26) were second and third in front of Crawford (16:28). Tanner Jason Karakaedos (16:31) wad fifth ahead of Kokinos (16:33). Alex Greco (ninth, 16:59) and Mike Ricci (12th, 17:14) would cross moments later to give the Tanners the five scores they needed to easily outdistance the Magicians for the team crown.Classical finished sixth out of the nine teams that competed on Saturday, led by a stellar 15th place finish from Tom Mackin (17:31). Eli Bakas was next best for the Rams in 37th (19:22).English’s top finisher was Kevin Francisco in 43rd (20:04). Teammate Andy Choun was 49th.uThe Cape Ann League also held its boys and girls individual and team championships on Saturday at Bradley Palmer. The Lynnfield girls squad turned in a stellar fifth place finish.Senior Tia Patterson turned in another standout performance as she was right among some of the top runners in the league for most of the race before finishing in fifth overall (19:21), just under a minute behind winner Olivia Lantz of Manchester-Essex.Patterson’s teammate, Marie Norwood, also had a good run on Saturday with a solid 13th place (20:25). Leena Aurora was next best for Lynnfield in 34th (22:05). The Pioneer boys top finisher was Alex Dalelio in 52nd (18:31)