St. John?s Prep and Westford Academy battled for the boys? swimming state championship last year and they were at it again on Saturday at Boston University in the North sectional meet.
St. John?s team total of 312 points was good for a 12-point margin over the Grey Ghosts in a meet that went down to the final event.
Entering the 400-yard freestyle relay, St. John?s held a 280-260 lead over Westford as the two teams had distanced themselves from the pack. The Prep had taken the lead in the previous event, the 100-yard breaststroke, by scoring 37 points to zero for Westford.
With 40 points available for a first-place finish, the Eagles could do no worse than eighth place to take the title as the two teams were side by side in the final heat of the meet.
The Grey Ghosts didn?t disappoint as they smashed the event record, winning in a time of 3:10.30. That meant the Prep?s quartet of Jake Rhodes, Mike Xanakis, Tom McGee and Trevor Gowdy had to beat the time of 3:25.75 set by Lexington in order to take the crown.
And thanks to a strong final leg from Gowdy, the Eagles touched in 3:21.63, good for third place in the event and 32 points that clinched the title.
The Eagles only won two individual events ? Joe Turk in the 100-yard backstroke (50.71) and 200-yard individual medley ? but used their depth to rack up points where Westford didn?t.
It was on clear display in the diving competition where Westford had no one participating in the finals. St. John?s got a seventh place from Ryan Sheehy (384.65 points) and eighth by Connor Delaney (368.35) to pick up 23 points that helped start the comeback.
Marblehead finished 16thas a team with 59 points but had several outstanding performances.
Charlie Seltzer took fourth in the 200-yard IM (1:59.32) and a seventh in the 100-yard freestyle (50.18). Teammate Jake Driscoll took third place in diving (412.75).
Classical?s Bobby Choquette was 13thin diving (298.10) for the Rams? only point scoring performance of the day.
Bishop Fenwick?s Connor Christuk took fifth in the 200 IM (1:59.32); sixth in the 100-yard breaststroke (1:00.93) and 16thin the 500-yard free (5:06.79).
GIRLS? NORTH SECTIONALS
The Marblehead girls finished sixth overall on Sunday at BU. The Magicians had several outstanding performances.
Ellie Ronan won the 200-yard IM (2:10.05) and was second in the 100-yard backstroke (58.11). Kylie Cronin won the 100-yard butterfly (55.80) and then came right back moments later to place second in the 100-yard free (53.58).
Meagan Hathaway was fourth in the 200-yard freestyle (1:58.11) and fifth in the 500-yard freestyle(5:24.31) while Katie Walker took sixth in diving (387.0 points).
Ronan, Hathaway and Cronin joined Grace Maguire to finish fourth in the 200-yard medley relay (1:51.52).
BOYS? TRACK
Danvers 55, Lynn English 31
Lynn English 49, Winthrop 34
In the tri-meet English?s (2-4) wins against Danvers came from Kevin Francisco in the 300-meter run at 40.6 seconds and Justin Kim in the 600-meter run (1:32.6). Against Winthrop the Bulldogs got wins from Andy Choun (1,000 meters, 3:03.8), James Cabral (mile, 5:17.4) and Dan Calnan (shotput, 34 feet 34 7 ? inches).
The Falcons (5-2) got wins from Jerry Dixon (high jump, 5-10), Jason McCannon (shotput, 39-0), Mike Daras (55-meter hurdles, 9.3), John Thomas (55-meter dash, 6.8), Kevin Hebert (mile, 4:56.7) and Colin Marie (two miles, 11:26.9).
GIRLS? TRACK
Danvers 59, Lynn English 26
Winthrop 54, Lynn English 32
In the tri-meet, the Bulldogs (0-6) got a win against Danvers from Ikhianosen Ukhuedoba (300-meter run, 49.5). Against Winthrop, Etienna Tazoa won the shotput (26-3) and Faith Agbonsalo took the 55-meter dash (8.0).
Danvers (4-3) had a double winner in Erin St. Pierre, who took the high jump (4-6) and 55-meter hurdles (9.9). Also winning for the Falcons were Karen Hovey (shotput, 33-11), Angela Calderone (55-meter dash, 7.9), Hannah Purcell (600-meter run, 2:01.5), Erin Flynn (1,000 meters, 3:40.3), Kati
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