Unfazed by first injury, O'Brien gamely rolls on
Former Oliver Ames High School middle distance runner Katy O'Brien of Easton added another notch to her belt Feb. 17 when she won the 800-meter run at the New England Division 3 Indoor Track Championships at Southern Maine University in Gorham.
Her victory lifted Tufts University to a second-place finish.
O'Brien won with a 2-minute 16.89-second finish. That narrowly gets her under the provisional qualifying time of 2:16.90, so she can run in the NCAA Division 3 Indoor Track & Field Championships at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology March 9-10 in Terre Haute, Ind.
This isn't O'Brien's first NCAA championship. She competed in the national outdoor one last May at Benedictine University in Lisle, Ill. She has qualified for the indoor version all three years as a collegian.
"Katy has been battling an Achilles' injury for the past month and a half. She has only been able to run two days a week, yet still managed to break the school record in the 1,000 meters," running 2:55 two weeks ago, said Kristen Morwick, her coach .
"She's a tough kid and is battling injury for the first time in her running career. Despite that fact, she has worked hard off the track in the pool and on the bike; she has been pretty positive and basically is doing what she is doing at meets off of sheer guts plus a whole lot of talent.
"She is never satisfied with a performance, even a great one," added Morwick, "and always pushes to do better, despite the obstacles. I also marvel that she isn't a 'track nut.' She really has no clue who she is beating or how fast she is running. She's just a regular kid with a lot of heart and a huge will to win."
For McNary and BC,
Hawaii no soft touch
Carley McNary of Norton is spending the week in Hawaii. It's not vacation, though. College softball players go where the games are, and from March 6-11, McNary and the rest of the Boston College women's softball team are in the Hawaiian Fling tournament.
The tournament includes the University of Hawaii, Liberty College, Pacific University, the University of Oregon, and BC.
McNary, a second baseman/center fielder, was a Globe All-Scholastic and two-time captain for Coyle-Cassidy High School. In 2002 as a sophomore, she was a key member of the Warriors' Division 2 state championship team.
McNary has a Lou Gehrig/Cal Ripken sort of streak for the Eagles. Last year as a sophomore, she started all 48 games, 37 in center field and 11 at second base. As a freshman she started in all 45 games, giving her 93 consecutive games.
Her best quality is her speed. She is one of the fastest runners on the team and used that ability at Coyle-Cassidy, where she was also a high school track All-American. She was undefeated in all Eastern Athletic Conference high jump, 300-meter, and 500-meter races in high school. She won the 2004 Massachusetts State high jumping championship.
Some Suffolk downs,
but Small a busy man
Former Stoughton High School boys' basketball captain Brian Small had a solid sophomore season on and off the court at Suffolk University in Boston.
Small, a 6-foot-4-inch forward and two-year starter for the Rams, was the second-leading scorer, averaging 14.1 points and 6.7 rebounds per game. He ranked 11th in the Great Northeast Athletic Conference in scoring and 12th in rebounding.
In the classroom, the finance major had a 3.96 grade point average, which earned him selection to the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-American squad as a second-team selection for District 1.
If that does not keep Small busy, he also works a part-time job -- in a tavern in nearby Faneuil Hall Marketplace. "I don't have that much time for anything else," he said.
This year has been disappointing. "We had four starters returning, and we had higher expectations," said Small. "Last year we won a lot of close games. This year we lost a couple. I can think of three games we lost on the last possession."
Small was a member of a great 2003-'04 Stoughton team coached by John Douglas. It included Roland Millien, who now plays at Bridgewater State College, and Eric Gomes, who opted for soccer at Merrimack College. They made it to the South Sectional finals before bowing out to eventual state champion Walpole .
Just a freshman, Darcy
on Bentley fast track
Former Sharon High School distance runner Dan Darcy is finishing his freshman indoor season in style for the Bentley College varsity.
Darcy had the highest finish for a member of the Bentley men's indoor track team during the Feb. 16 Northeast-10 Conference Championships, placing second in the 1,000 meters at Southern Connecticut State University.
He recorded a time of 2:32.84, finishing 2.45 seconds behind former Brockton High standout Keith Gill of Stonehill College.
"Dan has surpassed what I expected as a freshman," said his coach, Ed Lyons. "He has a great work ethic and tactically runs a smart and aggressive race. For a freshman, he's very mature on the track, and he will get better in time. All he just needs is to avoid the injury jinx he had in high school."
Darcy also ran with Bentley's 4x800-meter relay team, which placed third in 8:16.89. The foursome included a trio of sophomores: Scott McGrath of Francestown, N.H.; Jeff Vona of Valatie, N.Y.; and former Braintree High runner Garrett Stephen.
On the women's team, sophomore Melissa Nash of Marshfield recorded a third-place finish in the 3,000-meter run with a time of 10:51.12.
Westwood's Pat Irvine started his first college baseball game for Elon College Feb. 10 against Coastal Carolina in Conway, S.C. Batting fifth and playing left field, the former Hotchkiss School standout slammed a single to right in his first at-bat.
