St. John's has final word

CAMBRIDGE -- "Prep and Weston . . . Weston and Prep," blared the public address announcer all morning and into the early afternoon at the MIAA Boys' North Sectional Swimming Championships at MIT.

In the end, it was Prep -- but just barely.

St. John's Prep of Danvers won the final event in record time to garner 255 points and capture its second consecutive sectional title, edging Weston (251).

Down 1 point going into the 400-yard free relay, Prep's team of juniors Mark Scalise, Jeff Fiore, Jon Castaldo, and senior Jamie Mannion finished in a meet-record 3 minutes 16.22 seconds, all sub-50-second splits, to hold off the Red Tide, which had clocked 3:14.03 during the regular season. The Eagles came in a half-second better than the record set by Acton-Boxboro in 1991.

"We stacked the first two relays to try and build a 7-point lead before the last event, but we came up a little short," said retiring Weston coach Peter Foley. "Prep is well coached and a great team to shoot at. They were just too strong and too deep."

Mannion led the Eagles with a second-place finish in the 200 free (1:47.27) and the 500 free (4:43.01). "Of course, I would have liked to come in first," said Mannion. "But both of the guys who finished ahead of me really deserved to win. I just go out and go as fast as I can and score points for my team."

"I wouldn't have had anyone else anchoring, win or lose, for us," said Eagles coach Tony Padvaiskas.

Scalise was the only individual to win an event for Prep, the 50 free in 21.81, but the team posted 29 finishes in the top 12.

Weston junior Graham Frankel won two events, the 100 and 200 free, setting a meet record in the 100 (47.16) and qualifying for All-American consideration.

Both coaches were quick to point out boys who didn't win a ton of hardware but scored to help their teams. Prep senior Connor Fortin dropped 10 seconds in the 500 free to place 11th. Weston's Mike Grant finished sixth in the 50 free, fourth in the 100 breaststroke, and swam first on the second-place 400 relay.

"As a junior, Mike gets overlooked, but he's one of those behind-the-scenes guys who will be a leader next year," said Foley.

Andover sophomore Nick D'Innocenzo led his team to a fourth-place finish behind Acton-Boxboro. He became an automatic All-American with his winning time of 1:54.27 in the 200-yard individual medley and is up for consideration after swimming a 4:38.07 in the 500 free.