Danielle Griffin

The Norwell girls trailed first-place Weston by 2 1/2 points with two events left at the MIAA Division 4 outdoor track and field championships Saturday.But when senior Nikki Dempsey soared to second place in the long jump (17 feet 8 inches), it lifted Norwell to its second track title of the year. The Clippers finished with 69 points, Weston with 64 1/2.“This is my last state meet and it is exciting to win both the indoor and outdoor state meets,’’ said Dempsey, who also won the 100-meter dash in 12.79 seconds. “I knew there was going to be a good competition and the pits at this track were really good and I just tried to focus on my technique.’’. (via Boston.com )

The South Shore took the spotlight as teams gathered for the South Shore Principals Invitational. The Big Three Conference owned the girls’ 100-meter hurdles at Saturday’s South Shore Principals Track & Field Championship with seven of the eight finishers from either Brockton or New Bedford.

Every event in a state championship provides excitement and drama, but this year the relays may decide the team title. But don't expect to see the same line-ups from last week. Some additional fresh legs --courtesy of athletes that did not qualify in an individual event-- may help the common man become the hero. We watched it happen on Sunday at the Division 1 Championships, and those same teams remain in the hunt this week.

Nikki Dempsey won both of her individual events at yesterday’s Division 4 Track and Field Championships, propelling the Clippers to the championship trophy. (via Boston.com)

Norwell has approximately just 20 girls on their indoor track team. But winning championships is about quality not quantity.  Two athletes from Chuck Martin’s squad had a massive impact on the team point totals and distinguished themselves as dominant competitors in the division. The Newburyport boys were impressive in the distance races; collecting 15 points in the 2 mile, 16 points in the mile, and 8 points in the 4x800m.  But they were not one dimensional in their attack; scoring in 9 of the 13 contested events.

Gallagher and Christensen finish 2nd and 3rd at the US Open in New York, while several meet records were shattered at the MSTCA Elite Invitational.

  Add Woburn’s Mike McAdams to the short list of tracksters who perform best in pressure-cooking situations.  McAdams came up big for the Tanners in the meet’s finale, clocking a sterling 50.8 leg to edge Woburn past Algonquin for the team title in front of a frenzied Reggie Lewis Center crowd. The Tanners finished with 41 points to Alonquin’s 39, winning in 3:29.08. Algonquin was a step back in 3:29.19.

The 1000m continues to be a bright spot for the state.  On Saturday, freshman Maya Halprin Adams (Cambridge R&L) won the Large School event in 3:10, then on Sunday three girls ran under the Small School meet record of 3:08.12 set in 2006 by Meg Looney.  Alexia Lipman (Broomfield) won the event in a MA#4 time of 3:04.07. She was followed by Catalina Dominick of Danvers (3:05.66) and Brooke Hansel of Lunenburg (3:06.30). 

Hamilton-Wenham posted some impressive distance times, but Lynnfield would fight them off by 4 points for the team title.

Kieran Kinnare heads to Connecticut to try his hand at the steeplechase and ends up smashing his seed time by over 20 seconds. (File photo)