As often happens at the Class Championship, a lot of drama unfolded at Saturday’s meet.
La Salle’s Marshall Vernon and Portsmouth’s Sean Gray set up what most are predicting will be an epic battle at next weekend’s State Meet. Vernon coasted to a convincing victory in the Class A race where he toured the 5K layout at Ponaganset in 15 minutes, 29.38 seconds. Just an hour later, Gray has a similar race in Class B, which he won in 15:45.69. Don’t count out Narragansett’s Cole Francis at the states, too. On what proved to be a perfect day for the earlier races with sunny skies and a cool temperature, the Mariners’ senior had to deal with a strong gusting wind on the open fields. Francis didn’t let it effect his mindset to earn a decisive win in Class C with a time of 16:09.57 for his second straight title.
On the girls’ side, Pilgrim’s Keaney Bayha (Class A) and Portsmouth’s Allie Kaull (Class B) solidified their status as contenders for next week’s championship meet. Bayha won her race by nearly 30 seconds with a time of 18:23.56, while Kaull was 40-plus seconds ahead of her competitors with a time of 19:24.05. The final race of the day couldn’t have been more appropriate in a championship meet like Saturday. In Class C, five hundredths of a second separated our top two finishers with North Smithfield’s Julia Dowling becoming the school’s first class titlist, edging St. Raphael’s Mackenzie Lickert at the line with a time of 19:32.04 (see photo above).
In the team battles, Bishop Hendricken had its five scoring runners among the top nine en route to its third straight crown and 34th overall in Class A, scoring a low 30 points. Just eight points separated the top three in the girls’ race with La Salle winning it all with 52 points, five ahead of runner-up North Kingstown and eight more than third-place Cumberland.
East Greenwich swept the Class B boys’ and girls’ title, while Saint Raphael Academy and Moses Brown took the hardware in Class C.
Ocean State Running will have a full story on the meet coming soon. For now, enjoy more than 1,800 photos from Saturday’s meet as well as interviews with all our individual winners and most of our team champions and complete results. Click on the links below for access to all of that.
RESULTS
Portsmouth’s Allie Kaull is all alone as she passes through the mile mark of Saturday’s Class B race.
PHOTOS
Narragansett’s Cole Francis talks about his second straight win in Class C and goals for the State Meet.
