SUDBURY — It was a cold and rainy Sunday at Lincoln-Sudbury’s Leary Field but that didn’t matter to the Concord-Carlisle girls’ track team.
Persevering through some trying conditions, the Patriots used consistency up and down their roster to outlast Central Catholic to claim the girls’ team title. Wellesley was third and Woburn was fourth.
“We were just focused on each individual relay and it wasn’t until the 4 x 200 that we saw that things were really coming together and knew we were in a good spot,” Concord-Carlisle coach Hanna Bruno said.
The Raiders had led the competition for most of the day on Sunday but couldn’t match the Patriots consistency on both the track and in the field.
The Patriots won the javelin relay and followed that up with a win in the high jump relay, led by Stephanie DiRocco. Central was third in the high jump relay and added a second in the triple jump relay, led by a 35-3 3/4 leap from Anya Neira.
The Raiders also started well on the track but the Patriots sprinted to a win in the 4 x 100 (50.28) to begin to make up ground. Central responded with a win in the sprint medley (4:22.20) and a second in the 4 x 800 before the Patriots took charge. A win in the 4 x 200 (1:47.12) in a photo finish with Wellesley drew them even on points before a second place in the distance medley relay ultimately provided C-C with the winning points.
“It was fun to see how things turned out,” Bruno said. “We got contributions from everyone in almost every relay.”
The boys competition will come down to what happens in the pole vault that was suspended because of the inclement weather.
After trading the lead with Hopkinton for most of the day, North Andover looked like it was ready to claim the title entering the final running event of the competition, the 4 x 400.
Leading by six points coming in, all North Andover needed was to finish first or second to claim the title. But that’s not how the script turned out.
Reading won the final event to jump into third place overall but Hopkinton closed strong finish second and garner eight points. North Andover could do no better than sixth, picking up one point.
With that result, Hopkinton will carry a 68-67 lead to the pole vault on Monday with who ever finishes ahead of the other taking the top prize home.