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A new week and a new record for North Andover senior Alex Sullivan. Last week, Sullivan set a school record on the Knights' 2.8-mile home course at Harold Parker while yesterday he established a new course mark of 14:22, shaving four seconds off the record held by North Reading's Harry Norton. Sullivan led the Knights (8-1) to routs of Amesbury and Georgetown.

Pentucket junior Tom Labrecque took top honors for the first time in his career to lead the Sachems to a 19-42 victory over Lynnfield. Labrecque finished in 17:27 on the 2.95-mile course with his brother, Joe, coming in third.

Pentucket's boys cross country team lost a heartbreaker to Ipswich 27-28 when one runner got nipped at the wire, another got edged down the stretch and a third fell off his usual pace because of a turned ankle. Tom Labrecque and Joe Labrecque went 3-4 to pace the Sachems in a losing cause. 

With two sophomores leading the way, North Reading split its opening tri-meet, beating Amesbury and losing to Masconomet. Classmates Tyler Reiss and Eli Spicer were the Hornets' top finishers followed closely by Matt Oksein as the trio were within three seconds of each other.

North Andover senior runner Alex Sullivan set a new course record at Triton in a 19-44 win for the Scarlet Knights. Sullivan ran the course in 15:57, breaking a three-year-old record set by Alex Kramer and Darrell Barney, who ran together when the mark was set.

North Andover sophomore Jacob Johns, who hadn't even been in the top eight, had his best race of the season, finishing 10th as the Knights swept Pentucket and North Reading.

Behind a school-record time by Mark Rollfs, the North Reading boys cross country team as part of a quad-meet sweep defeated Masconomet for what coach Derek Dorval believes is the first time ever, 27-30. Leading the way was runner-up Mark Rollfs, who had a school-record time of 14:35 on the 2.7-mile course at Harold Parker State Park, beating the old record by Harry Norton by 20 seconds.

Avenging a five-point loss last season, Pentucket got a couple of pleasant surprises en route to a 22-39 season-opening victory over Amesbury. Joe and Tom Labrecque scored solidly for the Sachems, placing third and fourth respectively, while senior first-time runner Ben Lane finished a surprising seventh, beating the Indians' No. 3 runner.

Methuen's top boys relay team ran a superb 30:10 to place first and set a meet record at the Clipper Relays at Newburyport yesterday.

Andrew Stamatopoulos led off and handed to Ben Pare, who ran 9:54 for his 2-mile leg and then handed to Jared Reddy, who overcame a 40-yard deficit to win going away, defeating runner-up Lowell by 33 seconds.

Hosting its season opener, Pentucket succumbed to Masconomet, 15-50, and Wilmington, 22-33. The Sachems were paced by Jason Cox (18:59 over the 2.95-mile course) and Kam Doe (19:35).

Opening day translated into a sparkler for the North Andover boys and girls cross country teams,which swept Amesbury and Georgetown.
Ally Brillaud, a senior, picked up her first career victory in the girls meet.
For the boys, both winner Max O'Brien and runner-up Darryll Varney snapped the old Georgetown course mark in a sweep.

North Reading's boys cross country team split its season-opening tri-meet, defeating host Triton, 20-36 and dropping a 21-40 verdict to a strong Hamilton-Wenham squad. Mark Rollff rolled to a third place finish overall for the Hornets, covering the 3.1 mile course in 16:41 with teammate Liam Cregan only four seconds behind to place fourth.

Newburyport's Greg Englehart and Brian Morse tied for first place (16:29) at Maudslay State Park (3.0 miles). Sean Hickman finished third (16:50). Ryan Clark (fourth, 17:29) and Ian Wood (fifth, 17:34) rounded out the scoring for the Clippers (9-3).

Brian Cosgrove (first, 17:41), T.J. Howard (third, 18:08) and Andrew Buckless (fourth, 18:21) placed the victory for Triton (7-5). Jason Cox (17:51), Matt Pearsall (18:54), and Mark Pigott (19:01) all ran well for the Sachems (2-10).

Amesbury's Jeff Larnard placed seventh overall (17:22) at Patton Park (2.9 miles). James Parady placed 10th (17:43) for the Indians (4-7). Liam Leary finished 11th (17:49).