Tanners in the Postseason

Heading into this Sunday’s Division I Indoor Track Championships at the Reggie Lewis Center, Peabody High runners are ranked fairly highly.

Senior Zachary Grube is seeded 5th in the boys’ 55-meter hurdles at 7.91, while fellow senior Nat Gaye has top billing in the 55-meter dash at 6.6 seconds. Meanwhile, senior Nick Christensen is the favorite in the mile, having actually run faster during the season (4:12.7) than the current meet record (4:13.56) set by Xaverian’s Mark Amirault in 2006. Christensen, likewise, is a top runner in the 2-mile (9:26.4), neck-and-neck with Weymouth’s Nolan Parsley (9:26.33).

Grube is also No. 3 in the high jump at 6-6.

On the girls’ side, junior Heather MacLean is seeded 7th in the 300 meter run (42.57), senior Sarah May is No. 11 in the 600 (1:41.24) and junior Catarina Rocha is the clear favorite for the mile after her standout performance (4:53.89) on Jan. 29 in the Coaches Elite Invitational.

The meet record for the mile (4:49.7) is actually held by another Peabody great: Lisa Welch, who set that mark in 1981. Her twin sister, Lesley, who went on to become a world-ranked distance runner, still holds the two-mile record (10:19), which was also set in 1981.

Rocha is seeded No. 2 (10:54.94) in that race behind Maggie Mullins of Andover (10:51.04).

Junior Pam Zabala is seeded 3rd in the shot put at 37-2, the 4x400 team of Joanne Frangias, Rocha, MacLean and May is seeded 8th at 4:12.97. Freshman Carrera Dean is the alternate.

In swimming, the girls’ team finished 19th with 19 points, just behind Arlington High School in 18th with 20 points. Twenty-four teams competed. Sisters Julie and Christine Shea put in strong races in their events. In the 200 IM, Julie took 11th (2:21.36) while Christine placed 21st (2:30.2), and in the 100 Breaststroke, Julie Shea swam to 8th (1:13.24) with Christine in 15th (1:15.36).

The Shea sisters both qualified for the Division I State Meet on Sunday; Julie in the 200 IM and both sisters in the 100 Breaststroke.

Last weekend, senior wrestler D.J. Henrick moved on from grabbing the sectional title to compete in the Division I Championships, finishing 5th. He pinned Nick Blais from Agawam in the first round, then Owen Murray of Barnstable in the second, but lost to Murad Usmanov of West Springfield in the third round. Usmanov then went on to win the title, pinning James Fredericks of New Bedford for the 220-pound weight class.

And now, the boys’ basketball team earned a spot in the postseason Friday night after dropping Revere at home, 67-56. It’s the first time the Tanners will be back in the playoffs since 2007 – a nice feather in first-year head coach Thad Broughton’s cap.