WEST NEWBURY - The Pentucket girls track team is disproving the age-old adage that nice guys - or in this case girls - finish last.

The Sachems - a team that prides itself on sportsmanship - wrapped up an undefeated Cape Ann League regular season Saturday with a win over Triton. Only the CAL Open remains on the Sachems' schedule - Feb. 5 at the Reggie Lewis Center (5:30 p.m.).

Pentucket's season hasn't lacked dramatics on the road to 10-0.

The Sachems collected a last-event victory over Hamilton-Wenham last Wednesday when the 4x400 team won in the last event of the meet.

In the previous meet, Pentucket ended Masconomet's 61/2-year unbeaten run (Pentucket was the last team to beat Masco in 2001).

The 2007-08 Sachems set numerous school records on the road to recapturing the CAL regular season title for the first time since 2001.

In his 11th season with a program he brought to fruition, Sachem coach Steve Derro said this may be the best team he has ever coached. He feels the current team possesses star talent and lesser-publicized individuals who get the clutch second- and third-place finishes.

Junior April O'Brien, senior captain Paige Sutherland, sophomore Alanna Poretta and sophomore Breanna Yocum make up the Sachem front line.

O'Brien, who was undefeated in the 1,000, broke her own school record by 8.1 seconds at 2:46.5, and was a part of the extremely successful 4x400 team.

Poretta was almost as good in the 600 with one lone defeat. She also anchored the 4x400 relay team and won the mile at the Red Auerbach Freshmen/Sophomore Invitational in 5:20.

Sutherland lost just once in the mile and was a part of both school-record-setting relays - the 4x800 and distance medley.

Yocum burst onto the scene this year, breaking the nine-year-old school record for points in a season with 110 by consistently scoring in the high jump, 300, and 4x400 relay team.

However, Derro says it is the way his team acts off the track that gives him the greatest satisfaction.

"What I tell every team before the season begins is that I don't care what our record says at the end of the year" Derro said. "If we improve week to week and compete with good sportsmanship, then I believe we will have had a successful season."

Derro's team of 62 girls boasts over 40 kids on the honor roll and high honor roll.

"As a coach I believe we are supposed to teach these kids how best to conduct themselves in life because that is what carries on after they are done with athletics," Derro said. "That's why I am so proud that we have won the CAL team sportsmanship award four of the last six years because I think that message is resonating through the program."

For senior captain Christine Roy, having a good sporting attitude toward Sachems' opponents shows how much the team cares about the league.

"We don't want to be intimidating or threatening in terms of the attitude we present to the other girls in the league, we want to instead be threatening with our talent," Roy said.

Part of establishing that friendly attitude for Roy and her teammates was shaking hands with each opponent before and after each event, and picking up all the leftover equipment after each meet.

"It is just routine for us - pick up the bleachers, put the hurdles away, get the high jump pads put away - after every meet," Roy explained. "The other day after we were finishing up in Ipswich, one of the boys from their school came up to me and said it was the first time he had seen another team pick up after his team."

One would have to expect, though, that a team without its own facility would have to revolve around sportsmanship. Despite the fact his team practices its sprinting and hurdling in the Pentucket Regional High hallways, throw the shot put in a small secondary gym, and do their distance training out in dead of winter, Derro's team numbers have nearly doubled in the 11 years he has been on the job.

"We work with what we can," Derro said. "It's not ideal, but I believe you can overcome any obstacle as long as you work hard. We started this program with the idea to give the girls another opportunity to participate in athletics outside of basketball or cheering. In my first year I was hoping to have somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 girls and we ended up with 33. Consistently our numbers have been in the 60s over the last three years, and I think with the success we've had that number can only grow."