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WRENTHAM — There were plenty of noteworthy performances for the area girls at the state country meets Saturday at the 3.1-mile Wrentham Developmental Center course. That terrific rivalry between Andover junior Molly Kiley and Methuen senior Miana Caraballo was kicked up a notch. The two local stars were near the front of the pack at Division 1 States with Kiley third in 18:29.6 and the UMass Lowell-bound Caraballo fourth in 18:30.6. The race went down to the wire with Sharon's Daphne Theiler winning in 18:26.5. The powerhouse North Andover girls placed fifth in the 23-team D2 field. That was the good news. The better news was they may have been the youngest team to qualify in any of the three divisions. Scarlet Knight scorers were: freshman Luna Prochazkova (14th out of 188 runners in 18:43.4), fellow frosh Nicole Kroon in 27th (19:10.4), senior Leyla Kvaternik 47th, sophomore Leigha Leavitt in 96th and sophomore Gabby Harty in 102nd.   Kvaternik had been on the sidelines for a couple weeks so her return paid big dividends. Haverhill standout Finleigh Simonds placed 32nd in Division 1. At Division 2 States, Pentucket had the top boy or girl local team performance of the day with a third-place finish. It scored 126 points, losing out on the silver to Whitinsville Christian on a tie-breaker. Senior Phoebe Rubio (12th, 19:08.5) and sophomore Kaylie Dalgar (17th, 19:20.2) came up big. Other scorers for the West Newbury regional school were junior Audrey Conover in 33rd, junior Libby Murphy in 46th and senior Ella Edic in 47th.

Whittier Tech had reason to be proud with sophomore Noel Tripp placed 67th in the 188-runner Division 2 States field.

There were several elite efforts by local girls in the nine state divisional cross country meets. Methuen's Miana Caraballo and Andover's Molly Kiley renewed their rivalry in the 1A meet in Wrentham (3.1 miles). Caraballo was brilliant, taking second in 18:30.9, just 2.1 seconds behind Barnstable's Ava Bullock. Kiley was right there, too, crossing the line in 18:40.0. The next local harrier was Haverhill's Finleigh Simonds in 21st place. Another local performance of note was North Andover's Luna Prochazkova taking second in the 1B meet at Wrentham in 19:07.1. She led the Scarlet and Black to an eighth-place out of 23 1B qualifiers. Whittier's Noel Tripp again proved she can run with the best in the area and beyond. She took 13th in 21:09 at the 2A meet in Gardner (3.1 miles). The top local girls team was Pentucket, which took home the silver at the 2B race in Gardner with 63 points. Holliston won with 25. Leading the way for Pentucket were Phoebe Rubio (5th, 19:34.5), Kaylie Dalgar (9th) and Audrey Conover (14th).