It all came down to the final event, and when it was over, the Milford girls track team came up less than a second short of its second straight title.
The Spartans finished four-tenths of a second behind Hollis/Brookline in the 4×200-meter relay to finish third in the event and wound up one point short of first-place Lebanon (53-52) at the Class IMS girls track championship at Dartmouth College Sunday.
Bow came in third with 33 points while Hopkinton (31) was fourth and Coe-Brown (24 1/2) came in fifth. Souhegan (12) finished 10th and Hollis/Brookline (11) was 13th.
Going into the final four events, Lebanon was in first with 32 points, four ahead of Bow and six ahead of Milford. But second-place finishes by Courtney Hawkins in the 1,500 (4:57.34) and Briana Corron in the long jump (16-6 3/4) gave Milford 42 points and a lead of nine over Lebanon.
After Lebanon won the 4×400 relay, Milford’s lead was just three points. The Raiders also won the 4×200, and the 10 points pushed them in front; the third-place finish by the Spartans netted them six points, while second would have been eight.
Milford’s Cassie Sebas, Courtney Hawkins, Dina Pitsas and Peggy Lai took first in the 4×800 relay (9:50.36), besting the class record, which was set by Souhegan in 2007, by more than five seconds.
Corron also finished third in the 55-meter dash (7.48) and teamed with Sebas, Jillian Holmes and Jessica Krafft for third in the 4×200 (1:52.54).
Cecelia Muller and Amanda Clark tied for fourth in the high jump (4-10) while Lai took fourth in the 3,000 (11:04.27). The Milford relay team of Pitsas, Sebas, Muller and Hannah Ladeau also finished fourth in 4×400 (4:22.57) .
Isabella Stuopis came in third in the shot put (34-9 1/2) for Souhegan, while Hillary Wilson took fourth in the 1,000 (3:15.4).
Julia Bury finished fifth in the shot put (32-3 1/2) for Hollis/Brookline while Megan Kagenski, Devin MacDonald, Ashlee Daoust and Lyndsay Vasquez finished second in the 4×200 relay (1:52.14).
