About a half mile into the girls’ race of Sunday’s Middle School State Championships, Molly Richardson found herself sitting in around 40th place.
A reason to panic?
Not for this confident young teenager.
Richardson, an eighth-grader at Alan Shawn Feinstein School in Coventry, was just where she wanted to be, patiently biding her time for a strong finish in the biggest meet of the season. With the patience of a surgeon, she gradually cut through the pack of runners ahead of her before daylight came with about a half mile remaining. It was there that Richardson made her most decisive move, one that would make her a champion in the end with a time of 11 minutes, 20.22 seconds for the 3K course at Deerfield Park. She was followed by Natalie Crawford of McCourt in Cumberland (second,11:26.07) and North Cumberland’s Milania Rodrigues (third,11:30.91).
Holding back early was by design for Richardson.
“At the start, I was pretty far back,” she admitted. “I didn’t want to start too hard because I knew there were a lot of hills, and the hills were steep. But, as I progressed down the first big downhill I just started speeding through the race. I had the help of my coaches, telling me to move the entire race and help me win first place.
With five of its runners among the top 20, North Cumberland won the team title by scoring 56 points. Barrington MS was second with 72 points. Hope Highlands MS was third with 124 points. Comprising the scoring for the Northmen were Rodrigues (third, 11:30.91), Shea Maher (eighth, 11:44.24), Lydia Toth (13th, 11:55.44), Caylee Kurbec (19th, 12:16.41) and Charlotte Pryor (20th, 12:17.84).
For the boys, Warwick eighth-grader Kingston Bayha captured his second title in the last three years. Bayha, who also took the title in 2022, won his latest crown in convincing fashion. He finished with a time of 10:01.09, 15 seconds ahead of his closest pursuer. McCourt eighth-grader Jonathan Stowik secured runner-up honors in 10:16.81. Taking third was seventh-grader Jackson Domack of Broad Rock MS in South Kingstown with a time of 10:17.59.
“My race plan going in, I thought I was going to be challenged and have a group of five with me so I was going to try and leave them on the hills or something,” Bayha said, “That’s exactly what I did. I powered through the hills, powered through where no one can see you. That’s the best place to go.”
Teamwise, it was Cole MS that was able to bring home the hardware. The East Greenwich squad defeated Alan Shawn Feinstein, 56-77. Broad Rock MS finished third with 79 points. Cole’s five scoring harriers were Sean Wood (fourth, 10:32.49), Micah Dru (eighth, 10:45.58), Luke Tremble (12th, 10:58.23), Ben Casey (14th, 11:05.93) and Jackson Bloom (25th, 11:19.78).
