Rocha, Christensen Win EMass; Peabody on to All-State XC Meet

Fleet-footed Catarina Rocha did it again Saturday, sprinting past her competition for another first-place finish at the Eastern Mass. Division I Cross-Country Championships.

Rocha's win last year as a sophomore in 18:35 was a lot closer though with only six seconds separating her and Newton South's Kathy O'Keefe.

On Saturday, Rocha (18:06) outpaced runner-up Maggie Mullins of Andover (18:41) in the 5K course, although it still wasn't fast enough to come close to the course record set by Marblehead's Shalane Flanagan in 1999. Flanagan clocked in a 17:08 that year.

The Lady Tanners (118 points) finished third as a team, a point behind Lowell and not far off front-runner Weymouth (102 points). Peabody's Lauren Barrett finished 20th (20:18), Sam Allen 22nd (20:23), Sarah May in 32nd (21:00) and Sydney May 43rd (21:12). All three teams along with Newton South, which finished fourth Saturday, advance to the All-State Meet on Nov. 19 at Franklin Park. Haverhill, which took fifth, will be the Wild Card team for the Eastern Mass. representation.

Overall, a big improvement upon last year's performance in which only Rocha qualified as an individual to compete at All-States.

Senior Nick Christensen (15:46) similarly outdid the field Saturday in the boys' Division I race, clocking in 10 seconds ahead of runner-up James Sullivan of Acton-Boxboro. The course record is 14:52 set by Oliver Ames' Andy Powell in 1998.

Securing a fourth place team finish with 183 points were Drew Fossa (23rd, 17:02), T.J. D'Amato (33rd, 17:18), Anthony Tedescucci (56th, 17:40) and Ben Braz (70th, 17:49). Peabody advances to the All-State Meet next Saturday along with Brookline, Lowell and Acton-Boxboro. Weymouth is the Wild Card team for the region.

Overall, an improvement from last year's performance, which saw the boys' squad finishing eighth and only Christensen and Evan Braz advancing as individual qualifiers to All-State. Christensen took third at EMass that year with a 16:09.