There’s physical talent and there’s mental toughness. Oftentimes as a runner, you got to have both to win races like the RIIL Class X-C Championships.
Just a day prior to Saturday’s meet, Jason Padula realized that he might have to rely a little more on what lies between his ears.
“On my shakeout run, I had to stop around mile three or so. I was like, ‘Wow, my ankle really hurts. What just happened?'” said the Smithfield High senior. “It turns out, I tweaked my ankle a little bit. We have a very uneven part of our course at home. I tweaked my ankle a little bit and right now I’m wearing a brace on my ankle.”
With a decision to be made on whether or not to compete in the Class B meet, despite the pain he was experiencing, Padula didn’t hesitate to pick the former.
“My dad and I had a conversation before. ‘Is it going to be worth it? Can you run? Can you run?'” he recalled. “I’ve never been a quitter. That’s just part of being a Sentinel. Honestly, that’s been my school’s motto, hard work beats talent.”
Competing in the last of six races on Ponaganset’s covered-bridge trail, ignored the pain and the talent behind him to take the individual title with a winning time of 16 minutes, 14.33 seconds. Padula finished nine seconds ahead of Portsmouth’s Sean Gray, who secured the No. 2 spot in 16:23.54. Owen Klein of the host Chieftains was third at 16:36.79.
Padula went in with a plan of running just enough to break the tape at the end. The time on the digital clock at the finish line didn’t matter, especially with the more important State Meet this weekend.
After leading by just a few strides over Gray at the mile, Padula made his move as he entered the thick part of the wooded area at short time later.
“I thought we were a little faster after the first mile. I was expecting like 4:55 and it was 5:02,” he said. “Honestly, my plan was to hold back anyway so I was grateful for that because I felt really good. I kind of made a move by (utilizing) the tangents. I was just tightening the screws. I just used the hills and the downhills to create that gap. That was my plan from the start, create a gap and be able to maintain it and not do too much.”
Barrington defended its team title with a comfortable 44-84 victory over runner-up Portsmouth. Ponaganset was third with 88 points. Myles Napolitano (fourth, 16:50.17), Brandon Piedade (sixth, 17:08.89) and Eliot Lefort (ninth, 17:37.40) cracked the top 10 for the Eagles, who earned their 23rd crown in the school’s history.
Bishop Hendricken made it back-to-back titles in Class A by scoring a low 29 points. But not too far behind was Cumberland, placing second with 39 points. It was the Clippers best placement at the class meet since winning the team title in 2003.
Cumberland was spurred by a 1-2 finish from Sam Henderson and Connor Magill. Henderson cruised the 5K layout in a time of 15:53.93. Running one of his best races of the fall campaign, Magill took second in 16:32.94.
“We weren’t really competing against people today. We weren’t really going for a time today,” Henderson admitted. “We were checking our boxes as we prepare for next week. (and the State Meet). We just had a 10-15 minute review with our coach and our team and we checked every single box today. Our team looked phenomenal. We are peaking right when we want to and we’re ready for next weekend.”
The Clipper standout led a host of Hendricken runners in the early stages of the race. He passed through the first mile in 4:55. Henderson broke away by the midway point and breezed to a comfortable win.
“We have been training at the paces we wanted to run next week,” he said. “We were testing those out for a full 5K. We had very, very specific goals. Today was not the day to just go out there and win , so to win is pretty big. I was not expecting to be in that top spot. I was, so that was pretty cool to see.”
Magill was confident going into Saturday’s meet based on the season he’s had, particularly the Manchester (NH) Invitational last month where he clocked a PR of 16:27.70 on a difficult 5K terrain at Derryfield Park.
“I knew I had it in me to run a race like this,” he said. “I just wanted to focus on hitting my goal race pace and feel myself out for the state meet.”
As they often do, the Hawks won on Saturday based on pack mentality. A mere 19 seconds separated the top five and there was just a 39-second gap between all seven of its varsity runners. Behind Olson was junior Jack Moretta (fifth, 16:53.09), freshman Colby Flynn (sixth, 16:55.31), senior Sam Zabbo (seventh, 16:59.96) and junior BJ Kerachsky (tenth, 17:10.34).
To no one’s surprise, Narragansett’s Cole Francis claimed the Class C title. The Mariner junior took control from the gun and built up a sizable 12-second lead on the chase pack by the first mile where he was timed in 5:02. Francis was never seriously challenged the remainder of the way. Saint Raphael’s JJ Rocha was second overall in 16:23.80. Moses Brown’s Eli Ziegler placed third at 16:38.58.
Rocha put together his best race of the season with his runner-up finish. As he rounded the corner near the tennis courts for the last 600m, the SRA runner appeared to be chopping away at Francis’s big lead.
“My goal was top seven and I was in second place and going for first,” he said. “There was so. much emotion going through my head. I was having chills during my run. It was insane. My coach was saying, ‘You’re the hunter. You’re the hunter.’ But Cole Francis is an amazing runner. He’s not easy to hunt down like that. I was happy how I did today.”
