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North Attleboro and Franklin squared off in one of their usual epic duels. The short version is that NA got off to a quick start that had the Panthers biting their nails and the coaches wearing out their pencils. Slowly the team in blue chipped away and regained the lead. Although Big Red got the best of the last few events it ended up a losing proposition. As Coach Travato put it, “I guess we out-distanced you.”

Franklin relied on their distance prowess that had been displayed throughout cross country and indoor track. Although NA’s distance runners have been making great strides the final outcome of the 800 - 2 mile was 26-1. Franklin put down the hammer as Jill Sergi and Kate Rizzolo (on her birthday) combined for 16 big points. Only senior Jess Rutter was able to break into the scoring column for NA with a lifetime PR of 12:46.

North had struck first in the meet with a 1-2 finish in the 300MH. Jen McNamara’s 49.9 first place wasn’t a big surprize but having teammate Amanda Walkins posting a big PR at 50.2 was probably a shock to the visitors. Although recording the same time as the Franklin 3rd place runner, Walkins out-leaned her at the tape for the important points.

In the next event Adrienne Goldberg stunned indoor 55M Hock Champ Fuller in the 100M. The flip-side was that Anderson (FR) ran a 13.2 that grabbed a crucial point away from new-comer Tinuke Adeyemi’s 13.4.

The Mile (Sergi-Rizzolo) and 400M (Meredith Leenhouts) went FR’s way. Then came the second great match-up of the day. In the 100MH indoor champ Jen McNamara got out quickly. At mid-race Brittany Borchard started to close the gap. But as she pulled up nearly beside JMac, Jen found a little reserve and bore down to secure the victory. The results were the two best times in the league – 16.2 to 16.3.

After Franklin whitewashed NA in the 800M the turning point of the meet in running events unfolded.

It was in the form of a rematch between Leah Seward and Meredith Leenhouts. Dith won the 400M. But Leah was not to be denied in the 200 and for most fans the Big Red win looked like a plus. But unfortunately I knew that it would take a 1-2 finish in the event to secure an NA win. Franklin placed Meredith in the spot it would most hurt. She beat out new-comer Ty Lynn Graham who posted a sterling 27.4 in her second attempt at the event.

As expected, the teams split the relays although Franklin made it close in the 4X100. But stalwarts Kellyn Kearney and Goldberg manned the corners. First time relay legs Adeyemi and Nicole Chace handled the straight-aways.

North got the best of the field events winning four of the six events. The closest match-up was in the high jump. With Borchard ahead in misses at 5’ Graham was forced to clear the next height. She handled the pressure and soared cleanly over 5’2 for the victory. Third place finisher Kearney also led a long jump sweep. Second place in long jump fell to triple jump winner Seward – who in two meets has already racked up thirty points. Still a junior, Seward is less than 50 points out of NA’s all-time top-20 scoring list.

Tiffany Badger was North’s lone winner in the throwing events, remaining undefeated in the discus. She settled for second place behind Fuller in the shot put while Franklin’s Bertman edged first year thrower Erin Cournoyer in the jav.

Over the last twenty years there haven’t been many lopsided scores between these two teams. This contest provided considerable early season drama and helped both teams focus on what it might take to challenge the other strong teams in the league.