Holliston 96, Ashland 39: Panther Girls Climb to .500

With their second rout in three days, the Holliston girls track team is rolling along into the Tri-Valley League and divisional championship meets.

The Panthers won at TVL rival Ashland, 96-39, on Wednesday to improve to 4-4 with only the completion of a rain-postponed meet against Dover-Sherborn remaining on the dual-meet schedule. If they win that meet, which they lead 47-21, Holliston match the win total from the indoor season and finish with four straight victories.

On Wednesday, junior Steph Paolillo won the 100-meter hurdles (17.5 seconds) and 400 hurdles (75.7), with her time in the former good enough to qualify her for the Eastern Mass Division 3 Meet. Paolillo wasn’t the only double-winner, as Vicki Palmatier continued her dominance in throws with wins in the shot put (34 feet) and discus (86-7).

After missing the state qualifying time by one-tenth-of-a-second against Westwood, the 4x100-meter relay team of Morgan McKunes, Meridith McKunes, Caroline Clancy and Briana Crowley hit the mark on the nose, running 54.0 seconds to take the win. Crowley had just won the long jump at 15-4, edging Ashland’s sophomore superstar Carly Muscaro. The Panther junior was also second in the 100 meters (13.4), with Nicole Kerrigan taking third in 13.7.

The Panthers swept five of the 13 events. Paolillo was followed by Virginia Hanstad  (80.1) and Diane Waterman (83.2) in the 400 hurdles, and Caroline Clancy (19.4) and Waterman in the 100 hurdles (19.9). Missy Westland and Steph Berard finished behind Palmatier in discus, throwing 75-11 and 69-11, respectively. Westland led a sweep of javelin with a throw of 78-5, with Sydney Strzempko second at 70-1 and Eliza Dodge third at 69-5.

It was the first varsity point for Strzempko, who then picked up another second place in triple jump at 27-4, behind Clancy (28-2) and just ahead of Emily Stebbins (27-3).

Besides Muscaro, the Clockers had three of the other top performers in the league, and several Panthers had fantastic times and distances in second-place efforts. Julie Blackmore and Rachel Dinehart cleared 4-8 in the high jump, losing by two inches to league leader Kate Dreyer. Jill Rosati qualified for states in the 800 meters in two minutes, 33.7 seconds, as the miler-by-trade narrowly lost to Ashland’s top distance runner, Hannah Daly. Holliston's Bri Bergen was third in 2:45.

Dinehart took second in the 400 meters (68.3) behind Muscaro, and Kerrigan came back from the 100 to take third in 70.9 in her first race at that distance.

Morgan McKunes took third in the long jump at 13-11, while her sister Meridith was third in the 200 (30.1). In the mile, Lizzy Gabour (6:20) and Michelle Schefter (6:26) rallied for a 1-2 finish.

The 4x400 relay team of Morgan McKunes, Rosati, Chelsea Dubin, and Hanstad also won.

With the completion of the D-S meet still to be announced, Holliston's next scheduled competition is the TVL Championships at Westwood next Wednesday (3:45 p.m.).