Abby McNulty switched gears like she did so many times during her stellar cross country season and began to move hard with 400 meters remaining on the Reggie Lewis Center track. When the state Div. 2 cross country champion crossed the finish line of the distance medley with a 5-minute anchor split for the mile, Bishop Feehan had a startling meet record of 12:29.
The effort put in by the Shamrock team of McNulty, her sister Katie, Brynna Harum and Elizabeth Hannon was one of the brightest at yesterday’s Div. 3 Coaches Relays. The time anchored Bishop Feehan well ahead of runner-up Hingham (12:42.65) and well under the previous meet record of 12:37.15 run by the Shamrocks in 2011. McNulty, who also paced the Shamrocks to a big win in the 4x800 (9:45.37), was confident the foursome had a great chance at lowering the meet record. “We ran this event at Dartmouth and we knew what we were capable of,” said McNulty, who has run a 10:44 in the 2 mile this winter. “I was on pace to break 5 (minutes) and was really pushing to help our time.”
It was all Hingham in the team competition with both the boys and girls coming away with victories. The girls, who finished second to Hopkinton last year, beat out Brian Hall’s squad with 53.5 points. Hopkinton was second with 53 and Bishop Feehan came away with 43. Julie McConville, Julia Noble and were key in pushing the Harborwomen to second in the distance medley (12:42.65) and 4x800 (9:52.44). Morgan Sullivan clocked a 2:24 split in the 4x800 and a 60.5 in the 4x400. Kate Criscitiello and Gabriella Candelieri played big roles in the 50 hurdles and 4x200, respectively. “I told them we had shot and that it was going to come down to an inch here or a second there,” said Hingham girls coach Dave Jewett. “Our focus was on really caring about your teammates. It was nice to bring that today.”
The Hingham boys were led by a winning 4x200 (1:34.87) team of Aiden Ryan, Kevin O’Niel, Chris McDowell and Andrew Bolze. The Harbormen also blazed to victory in the 4x400 (3:32.68) led by O’Niel, Grant Whitney, Scott Pollara and Billy Lumbert and the 4x800 (8:.09.02) with Lumbert, Nick Nielsen, Duncan Burleigh and Grant Whitney setting the pace.
In Saturday’s Div. 2 competition, Gavin Wilson surged across the finish line and cooly headed onto the infield, looking barely winded. The anchor of the 4x200 relay knew fully well that Woburn had completely decimated the field and that its’ near flawless baton exchanges were a big reason why. What Wilson didn’t know until a few minutes later was that he and teammates Anthony Nguyen, Chris Jewett and Preston Gordon had bettered Mansfield’s 2011 meet record of 1:30.82 with a sterling 1:31.58. Algonquin raced well to take second in 1:33.44 while Marshfield clinched the bronze at 1:34.63. While several teams struggled with their handoffs, trying to find a rhythm, Woburn was dead on with the all-important exchanges, courtesy of working on them tirelessly at the conclusion of every practice, and wound up with the lone meet record of the day. “We finish workouts with five to ten handoffs,” said Gordon, who ran the third leg. “We didn’t know what the meet record was, but we knew if we came in and got our handoffs down, we had the best team in the state. We knew we had the best depth of any team too.” Head coach Joe Curran wasn’t surprised by his sprinters’ performance. “We work hard on them (handoffs) all week,” he said. “Everyone works hard for each other. They don’t want to let their teammates down.’ Woburn wound up with a stellar day, successfully defended its’ title with 37 points after finishing third in the 4x400. The Tanners also finished second in the dash (22.57) and third in the 4x800 (8:16.09) to go along with the record-breaking 4x200 performance.
The North Andover girls were still on a high after defeating a tough Andover team in dual-meet competition on Wednesday evening and took the team title in a tight battle. The Scarlet Knights finished with 29 points, followed by Marshfield and Whitman-Hanson in second (28) and Notre Dame of Hingham in fourth (26).
Rick DelleChiaie’s squad picked up a big win in the shot put relay with the team of Courtney Green, Katie McManus and Alexandra Layne combining for a 101-3/4 showing. The surprise performance for North Andover came in the high jump where Catherine Flaherty, Mary Lavery and Megan McCann took third with a 14-2-3/4 effort. “We have some real studs this year,” said DelleChiaie. “It’s given the girls a lot of confidence. We won (against Andover) Wednesday night and came flying into this meet.”
The Whitman-Hanson girls came up just short of the meet record in the 4x800 clocking a time of 9:28.87. The same foursome of Gianna Cacciatore, Sam Coletti and sisters Abby and Rachael Baker also ran away with the distance medley, clocking a 12:48.88.