Class C Championships – Girls
Day/Time: Saturday at 2 p.m.
Site: Ponaganset High
Teams: Westerly, Juanita Sanchez, Rogers, Burrillville, North Smithfield, Prout, Exeter/West Greenwich, Moses Brown, St. Raphael, Blackstone Valley Prep, Tiverton, Narragansett, Scituate, St. Mary’s Bay View, Lincoln School, Paul Cuffee, Providence Country Day
Last Year’s Results: Moses Brown won a close one against Saint Raphael Academy. With three of their runners among the top 12, the Quakers slipped by the Saints, 65-69. After finishing twice the previous two years, the Saints’ Rory Sullivan ran away with the individual title, breaking the tape in 18:30.47, more than a minute ahead of her closet rival.
Runners To Watch: Jackie Mattos, Bay View; Akayla Siddiqi, Moses Brown, Julia Dowling, North Smithfield; Mackenzie Lickert, St. Raphael Academy; Jillian Russell, Burrillville;
Outlook: Individually, we predict the winning time to be in the mid-to-high 19-minute range. That’s a time that our top five seeds in this race are all capable of running this weekend on the Chieftains’ covered-bridge trail. Mattos, a sophomore, has had two straight solid performance leading up to this meet, clocking 19:11.71 on a very-fast 5K course at the Bob Glennon Twilight Invitational in Cape Cod. She was also 19th overall at the Maine Festival of Champions where she was timed in 19:16.72. The Quakers’ Siddiqi, who has improved dramatically from 2023, a season where she was seventh at the JV states, ran a best of 19:20.82 at Twilight. Dowling is coming off her impressive victory at the Skee Carter Invitational where she was timed in a PR of 19:25.80. Lickert has been the most consistent of all our top runners in this field with times ranging from her 19:44.60 effort at the Ocean State Invitational to her 20:10.22 performance at the Vineyard XC Invitational. Russell, who was 11th in this race last year, ran sub-20 at Skee Carter (19:44.65) and at Maine FOC (19:52.99). When the runners exit the last portion of the woods for the final 600-meter stretch, we could still have quite a few battling up front.
Team-wise, defending champion Moses Brown is the clear-cut favorite to do it again this weekend and win its third title in the last four years. North Smithfield, Burrillville and Prout should all be battling for those next three positions.
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Class C Championships – Boys
Day/Time: Saturday at 1:30 p.m.
Site: Ponaganset High
Teams: Juanita Sanchez, Burrillville, Rogers, South Kingstown, Westerly, North Smithfield, Tiverton, Narragansett, Exeter/West Greenwich, St. Raphael, Moses Brown, Blackstone Valley Prep, Scituate, Prout, Paul Cuffee, Providence Country Day
Last Year’s Results: East Greenwich, which has since moved up to Class B, won its 15th crown in the school’s history with a 50-83 decision over St. Raphael Academy. Narragansett’s Cole Francis cruised to the individual crown with a time of 16:09.8.
Runners To Watch: Cole Francis, Narragansett; Arthur Ferris, Burrillville; Noah Vachon, St. Raphael Academy.
Outlook: The overwhelming favorite to take the gold is Francis, who should coast to his second straight title this weekend. The Mariner senior has had his typical strong season leading up to this race. He ran a season best of 15:38.60 at the Great American XC Festival in North Carolina at the beginning of the month. Francis also went 16:04 at the Ocean State Invitational and clocked a winning 16:04.54 at the Highland Park Invitational in mid September. We’re predicting Francis will not go all-out in this one, saving some energy for the State Meet the following weekend. We’re thinking he’ll run just enough to win comfortably. probably another low 16-minute effort. Ferris looks to be a solid contender for that coveted runner-up spot. He’s coming off a fourth-place finish from the Skee Carter Invite where he raced to a time of 16:36.0. He also had a PR of 16;15.8 at the Maine Festival of Champion.
How about on the team side? From 1933 to 1942, Burrillville racked up eight Class B titles in a nine-year span, which included sharing the crown with Westerly in 1937. Since that dominance, the Broncos have not won a class title. Could a more than eight-decade drought end this weekend? It’s highly possible. Burrillville, which finished third in the Northern Division with a 9-2 mark, appears primed to take home the plaque on Saturday. Behind Ferris, is a squad that features five runners that have are capable of running a time in the high 17-minute to mid 18-minute range. That should be just enough to beat St. Ray’s, the only other squad we expect to vying for the team title. Keep an eye on the Prout School, which should also figure in the mix.
