Merrimack High’s boys track team had itself right in the midst of the team title chase early on with 38 points in the Division I State Track Meet, which had it trailing Exeter by a mere two points.

But Exeter proved to be too much, and Merrimack settled for fourth place overall.

At the center of the Tomahawks’ success to that juncture was a first place finish by the 4×100 relay quartet of Adam Thornton, Ben Eichman, Zach Twardosky, and Tristan Wood with its top time of 43.15.

Merrimack had also received a second place from Jared Dyer in the shot and a second in the 100 and a third in the javelin from Thornton. But veteran coach John Snell’s Tomahawks wound up falling well out of title contention before long despite some fine performances.

Thornton took fifth in the 200, while Same Bailey was 6th in the 110 hurdles and Twardosky was sixth in the 100 meters.

The 4×800 team of Josh Felo, Adam Ellis, Andrew Frothingham and Elijah Demeo was fourth.

The Merrimack girls had only two scorers with Adele Alexander grabbing third in the 1600 meters at 5:13.44 and Mary Vance taking sixth in the 100 meters with a 13.13 clocking.

Bishop Guertin got some superb contributions from Jacob Pacheco, who won the javelin (150-2) and bagged second in the pole vault. And Ethan Holt collected a second for the Cardinals in the high jump.

North had Joseph Curran tally top-three finishes in both the 1600 and the 800, and Nashua South’s biggest news came from Paul Marchand with his victory in the long jump.

Merrimack’s top scorers moved on to the Granite State Meet of Champions on Saturday at the University of New Hampshire.

Softball

Division I First Round

No. 8 Merrimack 5,

No. 9 Londonderry 3

Merrimack survives a tough matchup and surpasses the Lancers. Erin Knauer had two doubles and two runs, with Brenna Davenport hitting for two doubles and a RBI single to lead the offense. Grace Lawton added a RBI single and Kaleigh Blades touched base for a double adding to the Tomahawks win. Merrimack visited No. 1 Exeter on Saturday in the Division I quarterfinals.

Baseball

Merrimack 11, Salem 5

Cody Pfeifer had a home run and four RBIs in the Tomahawks win Friday night. Jack Goodwin got the win giving up five runs, seven hits and striking out two in four innings. Goodwin also had two runs, three hits and a RBI. Eric Stack added onto the offense scoring two runs and getting two hits. Merrimack ended at 4-14.