Local `Treasure Hunters' fall short

The Southie Boys reached the end of their treasure hunt.

The trio, twins Martin and Matthew Mullen and friend John Collins, tied for second place last night on NBC's ``Treasure Hunters," a reality show similar to CBS's ``The Amazing Race."

Last night, the ``Geniuses" solved a five-letter code to open a cryptex that led them to a gold treasure worth $3 million. They beat out the ``Air Force" and the ``Southie Boys" teams.

All summer, the South Boston guys have been competing against 10 three-person teams to gather clues and solve problems fast to avoid being eliminated.

The clues took them to all over the world, from a glacier in Alaska to the Eiffel Tower and through 200 years of history.

``There is nothing worse than second place," said Collins, on the show.

``We were so close," added Martin Mullen.

Johnny Diaz