There was no looking back.
With course record performances, North Kingstown’s Abbie Tighe and Bishop Hendricken’s Colby Flynn were convincing winners in the respective girls’ and boys’ races at Monday’s Freshmen State Championships at Deerfield Park.
The gifted harriers took charge from the gun with Tighe posting a winning time of 15 minutes, 4.13 seconds and Flynn crossing the line at 13:21.70 for the 4K course. In the team competition, a 1-5-6 finish by North Kingstown’s top three spurred the Skippers to a comfortable 45-75 decision over runner-up La Salle Academy in the girls’ meet. Much like the frosh race at the season-opening Injury Fund Carnival, Hendricken survived a close battle with East Greenwich and La Salle. The Hawks scored 60 points to take the hardware, just six points ahead of second-place East Greenwich and seven in front of La Salle, which took the silver.
Tighe is coming off a slight injury in her calf, but it appears behind her now as she looked strong throughout the race. The Skipper ninth-grader finished about 150 meters ahead of La Salle’s Alyssa Parenteau, who was timed in 15:31.03 for second. Cumberland’s Anna Bianchi was third at 15:50.89.
“I just wanted to come here and do my best,” said Tighe, who erased the freshmen course mark of 15:05.5 by Cumberland’s Kiley DeFusco in 2021.
The NK standout’s time at Deerfield was more than a minute faster than her time on the same course on Sept. 2 when she finished third in the frosh race at the Injury Fund Carnival. Since that meet, which was won by teammate Lucy Stowe, Tighe has been on somewhat of a tear. She won the freshmen title at the Ocean State Invitational with a then best of 15:12 for the 4K distance and recently placed second at the Avenger XC Invitational where she went sub-19 with a PR of 18:52.36 for 5K.
“I have really good coaches,” she said. “They have just helped me through a lot.”
Tighe has a few familiar faces behind her. Placing fifth and sixth, respectively, were fellow classmates Stowe (15:55.79) and Maura Whitney (16:00.93). East Greenwich’s Olive Willis took the fourth spot, clocking 15:54.08. North Kingstown’s remaining scoring runners were Ruby Galle (27th, 18:17.66) and Sydney Asher (30th, 18:32.13).
“Lucy and Maura are awesome,” Tighe said. “They did so good today.”
The Rams’ Parenteau stuck was within striking distance of her rival through most of the race. She hit her opening mile at just under six minutes. Tighe was able to put some distance on Parenteau with less than a half-mile remaiining.
“I knew Abbie likes to go out fast so I was prepared to go out fast. I have been doing speed work lately,” the La Salle frosh said. “I went out fast with her, we were like (5:56 at the mile), which is faster than I usually go. We were up there with Lucy Stowe, too. Abbie had a good gap and she just kept pushing it and my splits were going up. I just tried to negative split it and keep going the same pace at the end and I definitely did that.”
Like Tighe, Parenteau is enjoying a successful first season as a high-schooler. Earlier this month, she was a winner in the freshmen race at the pretsigious Manhattan College Invitational. She also won a big race against Mount Hope’s Jessica Deal in a Metropolitan Division matchup on Oct. 2 where she was timed in 19:50 to Deal’s 20:07 effort.
Flynn never left the outcome in doubt in the boys’ race. He already had a sizable gap on the chase pack by the mile mark and won by 19 seconds over teammate Michael Moreira, who crossed the line in 13:40.03. East Greenwich’s Andrew Parisi was third at 13:41.31.
“I felt really good at the mile mark,” said Flynn, who dipped under the CR of 13:28.60 by Lincoln’s Logan Halliwall from 2021. “After that I started to get a little tired and just kind of pushed through it because I knew I couldn’t let up because Michael was close behind me.”
Flynn’s time was a 26-second improvement from his victory at Injury Fund nearly two months ago. Since that race, he’s run some impressive times, including 16:49.50 on a tough 5K course at the Manchester Invitational on Sept. 23 and a 16:27.0 best in a Suburban Division meets a few weeks ago. Flynn is currently the No. 6 runner on the Hawks’ varsity squad.
As for Moreira, he was satisfied with the runner-up finish to his teammate.
“(Flynn) gave me a lot of motivation just to come in second and hang with (Parisi). He ran really well,” Moreira said. “I was just trying to push at the end so we could bring home a state championship.”
The Hawks did just that with the efforts of Flynn, Moreira, Lorenzo Giacobbe (tenth, 14:33.68), James McCarthy (31st, 15:14.43) and Anthony Renzulli (35th, 15:27.76).
Rounding out the top five individually was Barrington’s Colby Napolitano (fourth, 13;51.23) and East Greenwich Brody Tetreault (fifth, 13:55.94).
