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READING — North Andover was the team of the day but, with apologies to Central Catholic star Ryan O’Boyle, senior Jason Ricketts was the man of the hour at the Division 2 state meet last night at Reading High School. One of three champions on the day for the Knights, and one of seven qualifiers for the All-State meet at Salem Feb. 25, Ricketts became a fan favorite in the 152-pound finals, where he was matched up with Burlington’s Luke Nigro, who had edged him by a point in the North sectional. Ahead 4-0 in the second period, Ricketts went tumbling hard out of bounds and injured both knees, the right one of which had bothered him much of last year and the first half of this season. With Ricketts in obvious pain, coaches, officials and trainers huddled around him, seeing that his left kneecap had popped out. “I was hurting pretty bad and didn’t know if I could go on,” said Ricketts, who was later named the tourney Outstanding Wrestler.. Fortunately, Ricketts injury took place right next to Mike Connelly, the father of 160-pound standout Dan Connelly and a physician in Boston. The elder Connelly popped Ricketts’ kneecap back into place and, after several more minutes, and following a huge ovation, he went back into the circle to continue the match. “I really didn’t think he was going back in,” said Dr. Connelly. “I thought he was done and I was just helping him with the pain. ... It was a heroic effort.” Ricketts was obviously limited but, with the crowd behind him, he held on for a 5-4 victory. In a gesture of good sportsmanship, Nigro helped carry Ricketts off the mat to the arms of his elated coaches and the watchful eye of the meet’s trainer, who quickly got two huge bags of ice to put on his knees. This was Ricketts’ second straight Division 2 state crown, he won at 140 last year, and he improved his shortened season record to 17-2. “This is much more rewarding because I’m a senior and this was so tough,” he said. “The support of the crowd was huge. I’ve never had anything like that before.” Also rewarding was that teammate Dan Connelly followed with a hard-fought 1-0 victory over Masconomet’s Ryan Therrien in the 160-pound finals, getting a second-period escape and making it stand to improve to 35-1 on the season. It was the third time this year he beat Therrien, who was an All-State champ a year ago. Junior 182-pounder Ryan Neals made it a trifecta for North Andover, pulling away in the third period for an 8-4 decision over Masco’s Ayden Strachan to improve to 34-2. Finishing second for the Knights were Danielle Coughlin, who fell in the 106-pound finals to Dracut’s Jon Ryan, and 138-pound freshman Fritz Hoehn, who fell to Natick star James Smith 13-0. It was only the second loss of the season for Hoehn (35-2). Also for North Andover, Zane Melillo battled back to third at 132, edging Belmont star Sami Baghdadi 4-2 in the consolation finals, and Brad Drover finished fourth at 145, losing a 5-4 heartbreaker in his final match. The 132-pound class was considered by many to be the toughest in the tournament. All in all, it was a terrific day for North Andover. With seven All-State qualifiers, it overshadowed North sectional champ Winchester, which had only five qualifiers with no finalists.

O’Boyle rules again Central Catholic senior Ryan O’Boyle is having one of the great seasons in recent memory. He had three pins, including in 58 seconds in the 126-pound finals, and a technical fall to improve to 41-0 on the year. The defending New England champion now has 37 pins, two technical falls and two major decisions. “I’m feeling strong and ready to go on,” said O’Boyle, who won the award for most pins in least amount of time. Junior teammate Pat Lacroix lost a tough 1-0 decision in the finals to King Philip star Logan David. A two-time state champ, David improved to 28-0 while Lacroix dropped to 39-2, both losses coming to David. Also for the Raiders, Ben Tavitian finished third at 220, winning his final match, 8-7. For Greater Lawrence, Adan Marquez was third at 120 and Lenny Jorge was fourth at 126.

A season after a fractured back threatened to end her gymnastics career, Andover's Jessie Livingston won the all-around with a career-best 36.825 at the MVC Division 1 meet. The Golden Warriors placed second as a team.

O’DONNELL SETS RECORD Methuen’s Michael O’Donnell won the 2-mile in 9:31.58, breaking the previous meet record of 9:33.12. O’Donnell has come a long way. He ran the 1,000 meters in last year’s MVC indoor meet and finished seventh. “I just want to try do my best every time, and if that’s breaking records, then I’m more than happy to do that,” said O’Donnell, who ran a 4:17.05 mile last week. O’Donnell said he believes he will be running the mile at Division 1 States.

BOSTON — Somebody please buy Maggie Mullins a “Life is Good” T-shirt. On Feb. 2, the Andover senior signed a letter of intent to run track at Boston College. And then last night she ran her personal best of 10:51.04 to win the 2-mile and help the Andover girls win the MVC indoor championship meet.   That was nearly a nine-second personal best and fell just shy of former North Andover great Kirsten Kasper’s three-year-old area record of 10:48.68. The runner-up in the 2-mile finished more than a minute behind Mullins, who smashed the meet record of 11:09.58 that she set last year. Andover beat out runner-up Central Catholic, 89-74, and Lowell came in third (70). “(Mullin’s) time was awesome,” Andover coach Peter Comeau said. “We’ll see how good she is next week (at Division 1 States), when she’s up against everybody. Then we can decide where her fate will be as a distance runner.”    “Last year in the spring I kind of burned out,” said Mullins, a former soccer player who ran cross country for the first time as a junior. “I had a really bad spring season. I wasn’t injured but I wasn’t feeling really good.” Her burn out didn’t linger as she repeated as Eagle-Tribune MVP in cross country in the fall. Comeau added, “I’m happy for her and the season she’s having right now because last year was a tough year for her.” Comeau said BC gave Mullins a half-scholarship. “If she starts making these times, the money will go up,” he said.   Lowell won the boys championship with 104 points. The Red Raiders were followed by Chelmsford (53), Central (43).

Luis Puello hurt his ankle again in the first quarter and didn't return but Central Catholic still rolled to a 74-46 win over Haverhill. Joel Berroa scored a game-high 16 points while Parker Rogers led the Hillies with 11.

LAWRENCE — Rebounding from its first regular-season conference defeat in more than four years, Central Catholic appeared to be easily on its way to righting that loss last night against Lawrence.
But the Lancers came off the mat and made the Raiders work for their third win of the season in the rivalry.
Leading by 13 with less than five minutes remaining, visiting Central Catholic held off the furious rally for a 57-53 victory in front of a standing-room-only crowd.
“We really got after it in practice trying to get our mind off that loss,” Central guard Tyler Nelson said of Friday’s 62-56 decision to Lowell, which cost the Raiders their No. 1 ranking in the EMass. and statewide polls. “We wanted to come out here and make a statement, get a win and get back on another winning streak.”
And after breaking open a halftime tie, it seemed the Raiders, who had won 53 straight regular-season MVC games, would do just that.
Like it did while winning the first two games between the two by a total of 12 points, Central’s move to a zone midway through the third quarter sparked the rally. The Raiders forced turnovers on six of nine Lawrence possessions and blocked a couple shots to turn a one-point lead into a 40-30 advantage with 2:20 left in the quarter.
“I think with certain lineups we defend a little better with a zone,” Central coach Rick Nault said. “And we had foul situations where we had to sit guys so that’s why we went to the zone.”
The Raiders (16-1 overall, 11-1 MVC) scored the first seven points of the fourth quarter to take a 47-34 advantage with 4:55 left. But Lawrence refused to roll over. The Lancers made things tight with a 10-4 run to cut the deficit to three with 10.8 seconds left.
“I think we just made too many silly fouls in the end,” said Nelson, who led a balanced Central scoring effort with 14 points. “(The Lancers) got a few lucky and ones, and made a few big shots at the end like they needed to. They didn’t give up.”
Luis Torres sparked the Lancers by scoring seven straight points then delivering an assist on bucket by Leonny Burgos. Lawrence (11-4, 9-2 MVC) closed to within three again on a pair of free throws by Yadoris Arias with 5.9 seconds left, but a free throw by Henry Rodriguez secured the win.
“A lot of it was them,” Lawrence coach Paul Neal said of the Raiders. “But we’ve got to learn from it. It starts in practice. I don’t think we lost that game tonight. I think we lost it in the days leading up to it. ... If you start feeling good about (playing them tough) and being close, then you’re never going to get better. It’s got to hurt. It’s got to be painful.”

Dylan Epstien finished the 50-yard dask i a time of 5.8, takig first place and helping Andover to a fourth place finish (51 points) at yesterday's MVC freshman/sophomore meet.  

BEVERLY — On a day when most results went as predicted, Central Catholic’s Ben Tavitian pulled off the biggest upset.

Seeded third entering the Division 2 North Sectional, the Raider senior was last night’s only winner not seeded either first or second. While he might not have been considered a premeet favorite, Tavitian breezed into the finals, needing fewer than 3 minutes to record a pair of pins and earn a spot in the title match where he posted his third fall of the day in 2:34 over top-seeded Peter Salem of Dracut.

Freshman Christian Thompson's first career goal could not have come at a better time as his second period tally proved to be the game-winner in Central Catholic's 3-2 win over Waltham. Lloyd Hayes and Mike Kelleher also scored for the Raiders.

Methuen finished up an 8-2 season with a sweep of Central Catholic and Dracut. Methuen's Samantha McGovern and Victoria Daigle tied for the all-ariound title with 34.7 totals. Central, which beat Billerica, was led by Maddie Arndt (season best 9.1 on beam) and Giana Contrada and Jamie Maffeo excelled in the all-around.