Coaching honors go to Quinlan

Kerry Quinlan of Methuen, head baseball coach at Northern Essex Community College, was recently selected Junior College Coach of the Year by the American Baseball Association. Quinlan beat out a field of 392 candidates for the award. In six years at the helm, Quinlan's teams have won three Massachusetts and a Northeast Regional title. Last year's team advanced to the second round of the Junior College World Series. It was the latest honor for Quinlan, who was named Massachusetts Region 21 Coach of the Year and the 2006 Louisville Slugger Coach of the Year. Quinlan "knows how to win," said Sue MacAvoy, athletic coordinator at Northern Essex, "but, and more importantly, he is having a tremendously positive impact on his players, the great majority of whom are taking two years at Northern Essex and transferring to four-year colleges and universities."

Conferences name

basketball MVPs

Basketball players Alex Oviedo of Lawrence and Matt Welch of Lowell are Division 1 co-MVPs of the Merrimack Valley Conference. Lowell's Ashley Rivera grabbed the honor among the Division 1 girls. Division 2 MVPs were Billy Blaisdell of Chelmsford and Anna Aguirre of Methuen.

Two locals help

Amherst take title

There was a local flavor on the Amherst men's basketball team, which won the Division 3 NCAA championship in Virginia, and the women's swim team, which finished as NCAA runners-up in Texas. The Lord Jeffs clinched their first hoop title with an 80-67 win over defending champion Virginia Wesleyan. The team is coached by former Andover basketball star Dave Hixon, and Dan O'Shea, who played at Central Catholic, is one of the team's captains. O'Shea was not a factor in the championship game, fouling out after just 10 minutes, but he did come up with two steals. In a semifinal win over The College of Wooster (Ohio), O'Shea had four points and four rebounds. The two wins were Hixon's 549th and 550th at Amherst.

The swim team was sparked by former Belmont teammates Brittany Sasser and senior co captain Margaret Ramsey. Amherst finished second to perennial power Kenyon College and set nine individual and five relay records. Sasser won the 100- and 200-meter individual backstroke, both in national record-setting times. She and Ramsey also swam legs on the winning 4 x 800 freestyle relay team, which bettered the NCAA Division 3 record by almost 4 seconds. Sasser swam the lead leg of the 400 medley relay and, although Amherst finished second, two more records fell. Sasser's 55.13-second time in the backst roke leg was a national best, and the team time of 3:49.19 was a school best. Sasser was named Swimmer of the Meet, and the second-place finish was the best in Amherst history.

Merrimack senior Clarissa Lewis of Peabody was the Northeast-10 Conference softball Player of the Week, and sophomore Amanda Simeone of Nashua the lacrosse Player of the Week. Lewis batted .400 in 10 games with 14 hits -- including three for extra bases -- drove in five runs, stole eight bases, and did not make an error. Simeone, meanwhile, netted eight goals -- four each in wins over Presbyterian and Cazenovia in South Carolina. . . . Former Cen tral Catholic wrestler Joe Fendone just missed out on All-American honors in the recent NCAA Division 1 Championships. The Edinboro University junior heavyweight did beat Matt Fields of Iowa, but then lost an overtime decision to Bloomsburg's Mike Spaid. A win over Spaid would have guaranteed Fendone All-America status. . . . Former Globe Swimmer of the Year (2004) Elizabeth Mancuso of Andover, now a Dartmouth junior, is captain-elect of the 2007-2008 Big Green women's swim team. Mancuso ranks among the top 10 all-time Dartmouth swimmers in the 50, 100, and 200 free, the 200 butterfly, and the 400 individual medley.

The Lowell Devils of the American Hockey League are making a strong run to clinch a playoff berth as the season winds down. Since the All-Star break in January, Lowell has gone 15-4-2-4 to climb from last place to fourth and to within three points of second-place Hartford and two points of third-place Providence. In their last seven games, the Devils have picked up 12 of a possible 14 points. The Devils are three points ahead of fifth-place Worcester as the two teams bid for the fourth and final playoff spot in the Atlantic Division. . . . The Lowell Spinners of the New York Penn League were recently featured in Playboy.com's A-List column as one of the country's top 10 minor league teams to visit. The article notes the Spinners' promotional success, particularly the bobblehead giveaways.

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