One team won its first girls’ title in more than four decades and the other survived a one-point victory to earn its third straight boys’ crown. Individually, PRs and fast times were in abundance, including by our girls’ and boys’ winners.
Yes, indeed it was another memorable state meet this past weekend, thanks to the individuals and teams that made their way to Ponaganset for the Best Show In Town! Congrats once again to Cumberland’s Sam Henderson and Saint Raphael’s Rory Sullivan, our individual titlists and Bishop Hendricken and Cumberland, our team champions.
So what else caught our attention at this past weekend’s meet?
***
As a former sports writer for The Call and The Times newspapers for more than a decade, yours truly has had the opportunity to cover more than a dozen high school sports. Yes, I’ve witnessed sportsmanship being displayed in all those sports, but never like I’ve seen in cross country and track & field. Some will say that with my passion for the sports, I’m being a little bias. I would disagree. For the doubters, head down to a meet during championship time, or anytime for that matter. It’s clearly evident. When the gun is fired, the runners on the line are rivals. Once the competition is finished, that all changes. I’ve witnessed it countless times in the 20-plus years that I’ve been covering these two sports, the tremendous amount of sportsmanship and comradeship that’s exhibited by these athletes with their counterparts from their opposing schools. After winning the Class A race on Oct 28, Pilgrim’s Keaney Bayha almost instantly turned around in the direction of the finish line and began congratulating her fellow competitors. And it wasn’t just her own teammates. The smile on her face and excitement about their performances was genuine. It was similar to what we saw when she broke the tape at the end. There was also Saint Raphael’s Rory Sullivan at the Awards Ceremony at the State Meet. Before stepping to the top of the podium to accept her award for her victory, she made sure to congratulate each and everyone of the two dozen runners that were standing near the podium after receiving their medals for their top-25 finish. This is just two examples of what we often see each time we attend a competition, especially during championship time. Constantly, we see fellow athletes from the opposing teams exchanging in conversation and well-wishes before their races and then congratulating their rivals at the after or offering encouraging words after a tough race. How about on Instagram? Take a look at our account on Ocean State Running. The positive interaction between the athletes from throughout the state is a sight to see. It’s through the roof and quite impressive.
***
One thing we want to make clear in this blurb. This is not intended to be a private-public school thing. That is not the intention. Now that we’ve put that out there, here’s an interesting stat that was brought to our attention regarding a two of our top finishers, who currently compete for a private school. As you know, Cumberland nearly pulled off a victory in the boys’ meet, coming just a point short of two-time defending champion Bishop Hendricken. Now imagine if La Salle sophomore Marshall Vernon, a Cumberland native, competed for his hometown school. With the talented tenth-grader donning the singlet of the Blue & White, the scores would be reversed with Cumberland taking the hardware with a 50-63 decision over the Hawks. On the girls’ side, we have Sullivan, a North Kingstown resident, who competed for the Skippers her first two years before transferring to SRA her junior year. On Saturday, North Kingstown finished third in the girls’ meet with 118 points. With Sullivan back at her old school, NK earns the No. 1 spot with a 76-79 win over Cumberland, our recent winner.
***
Let’s talk about our underclassmen. We had six freshmen and one sophomore place in the top 25 in the girls’ race this past weekend. For the ninth-graders, North Kingstown’s Abbie Tighe earned first-team, all-state honors by placing seventh overall with a time of 18:47.47. Making the second team was the Skippers’ Lucy Stowe (13th, 19:29.14) and La Salle’s Alyssa Parenteau (14th, 19:34.26). East Greenwich’s Olive Willis (21st 19:49.34) made the third team. Cumberland’s Anna Bianchi (23rd, 19:58.19) and Barrington’s Evelyn Lefort (25th, 20:18.85) were also among the 25 best. Charli McCue of Cumberland was the lone sophomore to make the cut, placing 15th overall in 19:37.56. On the boys’ side, five underclassmen grabbed a top-25 position. Leading the way was Portsmouth sophomore Sean Gray (fourth, 15:51.64) and the Rams’ Vernon, who both earned a spot on the first-team, all-state squad. Hendricken frosh Colby Flynn (14th, 16:14.32), The other two harriers in the top 25 were Cumberland sophomore Jake Schonhoff (21st, 16:36.32) and North Kingstown sophomore Gavin Shipperley (24th, 16:41.78).
***
We never claimed to be Nostradamus or any of the other great prognosticator. Sometimes our predictions can be a little off. That was never so evident last week when we wrote our previews for the championship meets. We gave it our best shot based on our experience in this sport and our knowledge of the competition. But sometimes we might miss something that has others scratching their heads and even us after our articles have already been put to print. This can sometimes lead to billboard material for schools or the athletes that they were about. We’re not sure if that was the case this past weekend for the East Greenwich girls. But if it was, the Avengers proved their point that we were completely wrong in our team previews for the states. In our article, we picked East Greenwich as an honorable mention and not a top-six team. We did it despite the Avengers winning the last two state titles and having a strong season this fall that included a victory in the Small School race of the Twilight Invitational in Cape Cod last month and a runner-up finish to Barrington at the Class B meet. So what did East Greenwich do this past weekend? The Avengers placed fourth overall with 125 points, just seven behind third-place North Kingstown and nine away from runner-up La Salle. As a team, EG averaged a solid 20:15.38 for the 5K course and had a gap of just 1:10 between its top six. That’s what you call a very good meet! Kudos to head coach Erin Terry and her Avengers for another successful day at the states and putting us in our place with our predictions.
***
It’s shout out time!
We’d like to recognize a few individuals that helped us out with our coverage of the State Meet this past weekend as well as the class championships a week earlier. In our video coverage of the meet, we’d like to thank former Chariho standout Sully Cummins. Besides yours truly, one of OSR‘s newest contributors was the other cameraman on the course. Sully was located inside the woods, providing us with great footage and commentary at the 1.25-mile mark and just past two miles. I’d also like to offer my gratitude to Hendricken assistant coach Danny Brennan and my former colleague at The Call and TImes newspapers, Brendan McGair. As you might have noticed during our Class C races a week earlier and the girls’ race at the State Meet, Danny did his homework and offered some great commentary and insight on the all the races. Brendan, who does an exceptional job of covering cross country and track & field at the paper, was also a welcome addition with his knowledge of the competition and the sport. We obviously can’t forget Nessa Molloy, who has been in charge of our social media the last few years. Her passion is real and her energy is contagious. At times, she appeared more excited at the meets than the teams and runners that were competing. This past Saturday, she gave more than 100 of our followers, including star alums and all-staters like the Saints’ Darius and Devin Kipyego, South Kingstown’s Ellie Lawler, East Greenwich’s Riley Shunney, Hendricken’s Troy Silvestri, La Salle’s Matt Bouthillette, La Salle’s Jack McLaughlin, Chariho’s Tim Champlin, and former Classical standout and her son, Conor Murphy, a front row seat at the states with her wonderful coverage of the meet on Facebook Live. And how about Kate Manning, who was our photographer for the last two meets? She uploaded more than 3,500 pics from the two meets on our SmugMug account. Yes, you read that right, more than 3,500 photos!. Talk about going above and beyond.
***
How about this for resilience? We learned through her posting on Instagram that Mount St. Charles’ Emmy Belvin suffered bruises on her leg when she was hit by a car during a training run early last week. How did she respond at Saturday? With the best race of her career! Belvin placed 11th overall with a PR of 19:10.69, a best by 23 seconds and 34 ticks faster than what she did at the Class C meet where she was third overall.
