Kirwan wraps up stellar college career
Before there was a Sheylani Peddy at Melrose, there was Shannon Kirwan, a three-point shooter extraordinaire.
Kirwan was a two-time Middlesex League MVP and a Globe All-Scholastic who left Melrose with what was then a school-record 1,313 points.
She is now a point guard and three-point threat at Bentley, where she is a co-captain, earned all-conference honors, and led the team to the Division 2 Sweet 16 for the first time since 2005.
Kirwan, who led the Falcons with 4.1 assists per game, was second in three-point shooting percentage (38.5) and third in scoring (10.3). She scored 15 points in the 69-61 win over Pace that pushed the Falcons into the round of 16, where they lost to Southern Connecticut, 59-49.
She scored 11 points and grabbed four rebounds in the final game of her college career. In four years at Bentley she scored 1,107 points, dished out 508 assists, and hit 120 threes.
In first season, Ibric has Wheaton running
The story of Merzudin Ibric makes successes like the one he had last weekend that much larger.
Ibric, a Phillips Academy graduate who moved to Revere from Bosnia and worked his way onto the track team at Wheaton College, added another chapter at this year's NCAA Division 3 Track & Field Championship in Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology's Sports and Recreation Center in Indiana.
In just his first year at Wheaton, Ibric was one of two men on the Lyons track and field team to earn All-American status at the meet, finishing sixth in the 400-meter dash with a time of 49.18 seconds. Ibric's teammate, Jonathan Cunha of Lexington, finished fifth in 49.02 to also earn the honor. Cunha was also an All-American in the event as a freshman.
Ibric has gone from the crossfire of the Bosnian war and six years of seeking help for his ill sister to America, where he has taken advantage of every opportunity.
Ibric, whose nickname is Zoom, set the Exeter record in the 400, running a 50.93. He finished his career as an All-Scholastic selection.
He has shaved seconds off his time in his first season at Wheaton. Twice this season, he has run a 48.54, making the Wheaton record of 47.08 seconds a possibility for the next chapter.
Lynnfield gets hot at just the right time
Credit instant amnesia for the way Lynnfield's boys' hockey managed to turn the Division 2 North sectional on its head.
The Pioneers stumbled into the tournament, losing three of their final four games of the season, but forgot all their struggles once the tournament started and made a run to the finals.
The Pioneers were routed, 7-1, by Andover in the final, but not before shaking down their side of the bracket.
They started with a 4-3 overtime win over Watertown in the prelims. Then the Lyons beat top-seeded Revere, a Cinderella team in its own right, 3-1 in overtime.
They got out of the quarterfinals by handing Newburyport a 4-2 loss and went on to defeat defending state champion Gloucester in a shootout.
Ryan Smith, who took 21 goals and 29 assists into the Gloucester game, came up big again for Lynnfield, scoring a goal in the shootout.
Daamen stands tall in Pentucket's run
Sophomore center Kirsten Daamen was huge for the Pentucket Sachems in the playoffs, blocking 13 shots in their 41-39 win over Wilmington at Tsongas Arena.
That got them to the state semifinals, where they fell to Archbishop Williams, 45-31.
After starting the game uncharacteristically loose on defense, the Sachems clamped down in the second half in large part to Daamen, who Pentucket coach John McNamara likens to Bill Russell for the way she blocks shots and then grabs the ball herself.
The Sachems got a game-high 19 points from freshman forward Ashley Viselli, including crucial three-pointers down the stretch.
