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Northern Essex picked up its first win of the season on the road at Holyoke by a 3-2 final. The match went five sets with the Knights capturing the decisive set by a score of 15-8. Brooke Naatz of North Andover had 18 kills and Andover's Sarah Shattuck, who was returning to the lineup from injury recorded 11 service aces.

MANCHESTER — Pinkerton's boys showed a nice one-two underclass punch Saturday at the Manchester Invitational Saturday but the Astros did not quite display their usual depth.

With two sophomores iin the trio, Methuen's top relay team finished an impressive ninth at the Clipper Relays Saturday. Senior Xavier Metivier led the way with a 9:56 for two miles while sophs Freddy Coleman and Jason Dibble ran 10:10 and 10:52. Both times were nearly a minute better than last year and Dibble ran slightly more than two miles as the anchor leg.

Sophomore Luke Brennan showed that he's in top form, finishing first overall to pace Pinkerton's boys to a four-point win over Londonderry in a tri-meet with Exeter. Brennan ran 16:05 on the 5K course with teammate Stephen Connelly in second 30 seconds back. 

 Windham's Rohan Rai showed that he's in prime early season form by finishing second Tuesday at the Jamie Martin Invitational at Sanborn, edging defending Eagle-Tribune MVP Dylan Khalil of the host Indians by two seconds.

WESTFIELD — It wasn't a terrific day for the Pentucket boys cross country team at the Division 2 All-State Meet Sunday, but it was pretty fantastic for the Cape Ann League.

MANCHESTER, N.H. — Sanborn sophomore Dylan Khalil continued his late-season running surge Saturday by finishing as the top local placer at the New ENgland meet at Derryfield Park.

Methuen's Xavier Metivier ran a superb 16:35.30 at the Wrentham 5K course to place first at the MSTCA Coaches Invitational Junior race Sunday.  Also for the Rangers, Freddy Coleman was eighth in the freshman race (10:27.6 for 3K) and Sam Flint was 12th in the senior race.

North Andover's Alex Fleury ran a superb 16:28 on the Phillips Academy 5K course to place first overall and pace the Big Blue to a 19-38 win over Deerfield Academy.

LOWLL — Greater Lawrence's boys ran a solid race at the Commonwealth Conference Upper Division race meet but couldn't keep pace with Chelsea and finished second.

Individually, Eddie Adams finished third for the Reggies and Josh Small was eighth.

CHELMSFORD — North Andover sophomore Jack Bicksler employed a new strategy Saturday at the Merrimack Valley Conference meet and it worked wonders for both him and the Knights.

MANCHESTER — Pinkerton's boys couldn't quite reach its goal of taking the runner-up spot in the Division 1 meet Saturday, but it came close.

Concord rolled to the title as expected with 48 points but Keene slipped into second with 91 points followed by the Astros with 104 points.

Christian Bueno, Jeffrey Almanzar and Narkin Manirque finished 1-2-3 as the Lawrence boys cross country team edged city rival Greater Lawrence 26-30 for its second win of the season.

Pentucket junior Peter Lopata broke the school record on the Sachems' 2.95-mile course with a 15:52 to take first in an impressive 23-34 win over Triton. Sam Stys had a personal-record 16:26 in third and Will Coppola and David Gangemi gad their best races of the year in fifth and sixth respectively.