HANOVER – Richard Provencher said his Memorial boys track team had to be perfect if it hoped to contend with Merrimack at the Class L indoor track and field championships on Saturday, Feb. 3. Instead, the Crusaders were near perfect.

Despite strong finishes in the relay races at Leverone Field House, Memorial couldn’t catch the powerhouse Merrimack squad, which totaled 87 points to the Crusaders’ 68 to earn the Class L title.

Memorial enjoyed strong performances from Auburn’s Wes Cotnoir, who finished second in the 55-meter dash and ran the third leg of the state champion 4 X 200 team; Auburn’s Thomas Piccioli, who took third in the 55-meter dash with a personal-best time of 8.20 seconds; and David Irving, the day’s shot put champion with a throw of 52-feet, 5 inches. But it wasn’t enough to overcome the Tomahawks or their star, Gabe Dano, who edged Cotnoir for the 55-meter title, took the 300-meter dash crown and anchored the 4 X 400-meter relay team that nipped Memorial for first place.

“We needed to win high jump and place high in long jump to win it,” Cotnoir said, adding the team was down as many as 29 points entering the relay events, which close the meet. “Our guy didn’t beat their Merrimack guy in the long jump, and our high jump guy didn’t do as well as we thought he would.”

Though they couldn’t quite match Merrimack, Memorial still saw solid finishes in those events and more. Freshman Domingo Cruz took fifth in the long jump with a leap of 20-05.25 – about three and half inches short of Merrimack’s Corey Schueler, who placed second – while topseeded Chris Lemieux took third in the high jump at 6-02.00.

Cotnoir was Dano’s only competition in the 55 dash, and had beaten him a week prior at a meet, but the senior said he got off to a delayed start out of the blocks and couldn’t quite catch the defending state champion.

“Flip the coin,” Provencher said of the two competitors. “Gabe’s the best and Wes tried to beat him. Gabe is no doubt the best sprinter in the state.”

Memorial results

Bobby Johnsen also placed in the 55 dash at fourth with a time of 6.69, while Craig Berube took fifth in the 300 at 37.10 seconds. Corey Duchemin placed fourth in the 600 at 1-minute, 24.68 seconds, two spots ahead of teammate Scott Morin, who ran it in 1:28.19, while Ben Coutu finished fourth in the 3,000 at 9:12.99.

The boys 4 X 800-meter relay team of Jack Bauer, James Covey, Joseph Baroody and Nate Grant took fifth at 8:33.79. William Wrobel rounded out the placefinishers at sixth in the shot put.

For the girls, Tahisha Nelson ran to a fifth-place time of 7.61 seconds in the 55 dash, Holly Banaian finished in fourth in the 1,500 at 4:58.41, and Jacquelyn Dussault took seventh in the 3,000.

Central results

Matt Paulson held off topseeded Brendan Hyland of Concord for the 1,500 title with a time of 4:05.26 for the sixth-place Central boys, who earned the rest of their points with strong relay finishes. The defendingchampion 4 X 800 crew – Paulson, Corey Sinotte, Craig Brown and Dante Vitagliano – successfully retained its title, finishing in 8:18.27.

The 4 X 200 team of Mitch Albro, Chris Mitchell, Muzafer Aku and Paulson also fared well, finishing third in 1:36.25. The Central girls compiled 22 points en route to finishing seventh, thanks to Michaela Levasseur’s sixth-place time of 7.62 seconds in the 55 dash, her fourth-place finish in the 300 and two sixth-place finishes from Sarah Brooks – one in the 1,500 at 5:13.09 and another in the 3,000 at 11:11.87. Lucia Capano also took sixth in the 55- meter hurdles at 9.04 seconds.

The relay teams cleaned up the rest of the points. The 4 X 200 team of Lindsey Johnson, Capano, Levasseur and her sister, Aria, took second; the 4 X 400 team of Whitney Fremeau, Christen Carrier, Courtney Carrier and Arianna Vailas took fifth; and the 4 X 800 team of Lauren Ashby, the Carriers and Hannah Dow took fourth.

For complete meet results, visit lancertiming.com.