While they felt fit and ready to go for this past weekend’s RIIL State Cross-Country Championships, Pilgrim’s Keaney Bayha and La Salle Academy’s Marshall Vernon admitted the week leading up to Saturday’s meet wasn’t exactly easy on their mental state.
“You’re brain always goes and thinks 80 percent negative before it even gives you that 20 percent positive,” Bayha said. “I was like I know I got to come up with all bad things, but I’m suppose to. My body is suppose to do that.”
“It was pretty brutal, actually, just thinking about all the possibilities,” Vernon said. “Actually, I had to just stop thinking about it all together. I got back to smiling and going to practice and having fun. Before (Saturday’s) race, I was actually dancing to the music. I knew the work was already done. There was nothing I can change. What’s going to play out is going to play out.”
What played out for these gifted harriers under ideal conditions for racing were two well-deserved victories among the state’s elite. Bayha claimed her first-ever individual state title (cross country and track) with a gun-to-wire victory and a 5K best of18 minutes, 19.23 seconds on Ponaganset’s covered-bridge trail. Vernon won a showdown with Portsmouth’s Sean Gray. After sharing pacing duties for the first two-thirds of the race, the Ram junior broke away from his rival with 1,000m remaining en route to an 11-second win and PR of 15:00.75.
Bayha, a third-place finisher in 2023, took the pace out hard, hitting her opening mile in 5:37, seven ticks ahead of a chase pack that was led by Cumberland’s Kiley DeFusco (sixth, 18:50.03) and North Kingstown’s Abbie Tighe (second, 18:28.96). The Pilgrim star did exactly what she had planned prior to the race.
“I can’t worry about anyone else. I just got to think about myself, honestly. At that point, I wanted to do what I did last year. It’s the same time I went out last year with Rory (Sullivan),” said Bayha, while making reference to the eventual state titlist from St. Raphael Academy. “That’s what I had to do. You know me. I’m a bit of a front-runner. I like going out knowing that I’m myself. I’m in control. That’s what I did.”
PHOTOS by STERLING VERNON @rhodeandtrack
By the time she turned the corner near the tennis court for the final 600m stretch, she was well on her way to earning her spot at the top of the podium, wearing the coveted laurel wreath.
“The only thing that was going through my head was push now, push now, push now, and really drive ,” she said. “I was like ‘I have to go now, right now!’ I didn’t want it to be the last 100 (meters). I had to keep going. That what I did. I had to keep going.”
The feeling at the end proved to be worth it all for the hard-working senior.
“It was great. Honestly, it was,” she said. “At the same time, it was the relief of every cross-country race. Thank God I’m done. And I saw the time on the board and I was like, ‘Yes!’ It was a great feeling.”
Vernon and Gray went to work early in what quickly turned into a two-person race. With the Patriots’ junior holding a slight edge, the pair went through the opening mile in 4:38, about a five-second gap on Narragansett’s Cole Francis (fourth, 15:45.48) and Hendricken’s Colby Flynn (third, 15:43.50).
The race got more intense as the two runners went into the thick of the woods about 200m later.
“After we got into the woods, Sean led it up through the hill. I ran right behind him. When we got to the first downhill, he has this thing where he likes to just let his legs fall, so I kind of stayed behind him,” Vernon said. “Around the 3K, I made a surge to see if he’d come with me. He stuck right behind me and actually passed me, so I knew I was in his head a little bit. We came to the final uphill and I knew this was kind of the place where I’m strong. I pushed it on that uphill. We got to the top, I knew I needed a surge. I gave it my hardest surge, used the downhill and that’s kind of where the race broke open.”
With a solid five-plus second lead on his rival the last 600m, Vernon knew he couldn’t let up to secure his first cross-country title.
“I was definitely scared. He’s done it before where I feel like I got it and he comes up right behind me,” he said. “I was just pushing with everything I had. I heard coach (Bill) Myers yelling at me, “Let’s go!’ Coach (Ken) Skelly yelling at me, ‘Don’t look back!’ I was nervous where he was. I didn’t see him, so I knew I was somewhere in the clear. I pushed with everything I had. It was one of the most painful experiences in my running career.”
