Seniors team up for 4-ball crown

Seniors Colin Brennan of Andover and Evan Harmeling of Phillips Academy and North Reading played hooky two days this month. And just like Ferris Bueller, they had themselves one heck of a time.

Brennan, the reigning Merrimack Valley Conference most valuable player, and Hameling, a former State Junior champion, combined for a blistering 10-under- par 133 (66-67) to shock the field and win the 27th annual Massachusetts Golf Association's Four-Ball Tournament played at the Shaker Hills Golf Club in Harvard and Mount Pleasant Country Club in Boylston. The Brennan-Harmeling duo, representing Andover and Indian Ridge country clubs, edged MGA veterans and first-round leaders Frank Vana Jr. and Brendan Hester by a stroke. The two did it with consistency and posted just one bogey over the 36-hole tournament and now figure to be forces to be reckoned with during the upcoming competitive amateur season. Next academic year, Brennan will be playing at Rollins and Harmeling at Princeton.

High marks for Lexington track

Lexington's Darius Walker, the Globe's Indoor Runner of the Year, is making a strong case to win similar honors outdoors. In last weekend's State Track Coaches Invitational, Walker won both the long jump, at 21 feet 8 1/4 inches, and the 200 meters in a near-record time of 21.58 seconds.

His two victories highlighted another strong effort by Lexington in one of the elite track meets of the season. Joining Walker in the winner's circle were teammates Mekel Pascal in the 400 and Dhyan Adler-Belindez in the 2-mile. Other area winners included Matt Pereira of Woburn in the triple jump and the Woburn 4-by-400 relay team.

Girls from the area also impressed, especially the North Reading duo of Alexis Capozzi and Shannon Conway, who won the 100 and 400 meters, respectively, and also ran legs on the Hornets' triumphant 4-by-100 relay team. Stoneham's 4-by-400 team also won, as did Lowell's Julia Furnaro in the discus.

Scholastic odds and ends

Methuen's 1600-meter sprint relay team (Josh Adams, Johnson Claude, Guy Hudson, and Adam Hanley ) competed in the Hartford Public School Invitational and returned to the Bay State with a gold medal in hand. The win guaranteed the team an invitation to next month's Nike Nationals in Greensboro, N.C. . . . Central Catholic's boys and Tewksbury's girls won the 48th annual Collins-Mclntyre Andover Boosters Track Invitational. Central Catholic went 1-2-3 (Anthony Mawhinney, Chris Farren, and Mike Schlosser ) in the shot put to secure the title and win the first Peter O'Sullivan Award, named in memory of the Central Catholic coach who died last year. Tewksbury had just one individual winner, Chelsea Paolella in the 100 hurdles, but displayed deep depth to nose out Newton South.... Methuen ace Hannah Everson had a momentous week. First, she surpassed 800 career strikeouts in a 1-0 shutout of Haverhill, and then chalked up career win No. 50, also 1-0, against Billerica . . . . Lexington sophomore Kiki Saveriano had a no-hitter and 17 strikeouts in Lexington's 7-0 win over Stoneham . . . . North Andover's Britt Hart continues to throw goose eggs. She notched her fifth and sixth straight shutouts against Amesbury and Ipswich to run her record to 8-0 and lower her earned-run average to a minuscule 0.24 . . . . Phillips Academy junior Michelle Hollebeke had herself two productive games against Deerfield and Stoneleigh-Burnham. She pitched in and won both games, including a perfect five-inning game against Stoneleigh-Burnham. She also wrecked that school with her bat, driving in six runs with a single, home run, and triple . . . . John Dascoli swung a big bat for Billerica in a 15-1 win over Dracut. He had five RBIs, four of them coming on a go-ahead grand slam . . . . Greater Lawrence got first-inning home runs from Juan Olivo and Miguel Plaza en route to an 11-0 drubbing of Mystic Valley.... Jon Blackwell had six goals and Mark Taylor made 17 saves in North Andover's 8-3 lacrosse win over Marblehead.

Here and there

Gary Player has withdrawn his commitment to play in the Bank of America Championship next month at Nashawtuc Country Club in Concord because of a scheduling conflict. At the same time, two-time (2000 and 2001) champion Larry Nelson joined the field for the tournament, which will be held June 18 to 24 . . . . Bentley senior shortstop Steve Gath of Reading, who started every game during his four years, wound up his career in dramatic fashion against Rollins. Gath slapped a two-out, two-run walk-off single in the ninth inning to lift the Falcons to a 6-5 win. Gath finished his career as Bentley's all-time leader in games played, with 177, and at-bats, with 703.

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