UPDATED -- Patriarca Seventh in Division 1 State Cross Country Meet

Laura Patriarca put an exclamation point on an exceptional junior season with a 7th place effort in the Division 1 race at the State Cross Country Championships at the Gardner Municipal Golf Course on Saturday.

Patriarca, coming off a victory in the Division 2 Eastern Mass. Sectionals, ran a brilliant race, finishing 34 seconds off the winning pace, with a time of 17:10.4 over the 2.9 mile course.

"Think about this, in cross country you often toe the line with anywhere between 23 and 230 runners.  Including her own teammates, Laura has lost to a combined 11 people this entire season," said Tewksbury Coach Peter Malloy. "Ultimately, I think last spring season was a springboard for this cross country season.  It will be a lot of fun to see where Laura goes from here."

Tewksbury senior Ashley Toland also cracked the top 50, placing 49th in a time 18:21.3.

"Ashley Toland has been the face of the program for the past three years," said Malloy. "She's worked so hard and has been so good for so long.  It's really gratifying as a coach to see her qualify for this meet and compete at the best of her abilities in her biggest and last cross country meet of her career.  She has done so much for our program, words do not begin to do it justice.  We're going to miss her next year."

The third member of the Redmen contingent, senior Emily Parker, placed 81st in a time 18:49.5.

"The one thing we can count on with Emily Parker is that she'll get better as the season goes on," said Malloy. "It's appearent now that she belongs at these types of meets, as she always performs well.  I'm confident this meet will be a springboard for the upcomming indoor season."

Andrea Keklak of Lincoln-Sudbury successfully defended her individual title in 16:36.4, topping Peabody sophomore Catarina Rocha by 5.6 seconds. Weymouth won the team Division 1 team title with 92 points. Wachusett Regional was second.

In Boys Division 1, Shrewsbury senior John Murray crossed the line in 14:04.0, easily defeating Stephen Sollowin of Weymouth by 12.3 seconds. Brookline grabbed the team title, narrowly defeating Lowell, 114-131.

Bishop Feehan walked home with the Girls Division 2 title, clipping Hamilton-Wenham, 61-85. Feehan was led by individual champion Viviana Hanley, who destroyed the D2 field. Her time of 16:28.3 bested her nearest competition, Jordan O'Dea of Dennis-Yarmouth, by a whopping 22.3 seconds.

On the boys' side, Pembroke made a mockery of the Division 2 competition, besting Hamilton Wenham, 35-114. Led by individual champ Wesley Gallagher, Pembroke placed three runners in the top six and five in the top 31.

Gallagher's victory was the best race of the day, as he outkicked Dana Dourdeville of Old Rochester by three-tenths of a second, winning in 14:20.5.