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The Northern Essex Community College men's basketball team won its first game of the season, 77-68 over Lakes Region.

Matt Richardson led the way for the Knights (1-3) with 19 points and seven rebounds while Jorge Escoto-Garcia had 15 points and 15 rebounds in limited action and Chris Baxter played a fine all-around game with 10 points, 8 assists and 3 steals.

North Andover sophomore Jacob Johns, who hadn't even been in the top eight, had his best race of the season, finishing 10th as the Knights swept Pentucket and North Reading.

North Reading's boys cross country team remained unbeaten (5-0) behind the leading threesome of Mark Rollfs, Liam Cregan and Pat Clerkin in a 16-47 victory over Wilmington. Rollfs was first in 18:03 for 5K sand Cregan and Clerkin finished 2-3 just one second behind.

Behind a school-record time by Mark Rollfs, the North Reading boys cross country team as part of a quad-meet sweep defeated Masconomet for what coach Derek Dorval believes is the first time ever, 27-30. Leading the way was runner-up Mark Rollfs, who had a school-record time of 14:35 on the 2.7-mile course at Harold Parker State Park, beating the old record by Harry Norton by 20 seconds.

North Reading's boys and girls cross country teams both defeated Manchester to open the season. Matt Rollfs led the boys to a 19-40 romp by finishing first in 15:06 for 2.7 miles at Harold Parker while Liam Cregan came in second 10 seconds later. The girls also rolled, 21-39.