Yes, you read our headline right.
The battle for team supremacy this weekend at the RIIL State Cross-Country Championships is not cut and dry. It’s not the runaway victory that some may expect from La Salle Academy. At this past Saturday’s Class Championships, the top-ranked Rams made it look that way, scoring one of the lowest point totals in state history at the Class A meet with a dominating 21–75 victory over North Kingstown.
While nothing should be taken away from La Salle for its impressive performance at Ponaganset—where its five scoring runners were among the first six finishers and all seven varsity runners placed inside the top 11— don’t be fooled. Don’t be fooled by the results, where defending champion Cumberland also finished well behind the Rams, placing fourth overall with 127 points.
This weekend’s competition at Ponaganset should be much closer than what took place this past Saturday, when the state’s top three contenders match up again for the second straight week.
With its depth and strong front-runners, including recent individual titlist Alyssa Parenteau, La Salle remains a solid pick to win on Saturday. In addition to Parenteau, who raced to an all-time 5K best of 18:42.09, the Rams had a banner day from the rest of their varsity squad as well. Sabrina Ghamrawi (third, 19:00.01), Stella Pelagio (fourth, 19:07.34), Carolina Terlato (sixth, 19:20.26), Satya Mohan (seventh, 19:32.94), Olivia Wahlberg (eighth, 19:33.37), and Layne Stevens (11th, 19:59.55) all either set personal or season bests at the class meet.
A similar effort this weekend should lock it up for the Rams.
Here’s where things get a little deceiving for the casual fan. The full Cumberland squad you saw this past weekend won’t be the same one that lines up on Saturday. Much like she did last year, head coach Kerrie Carpenter held out a few of her key harriers at the Class A meet. In short, it was three of her top five scorers — Charli McCue, Anna Bianchi, and freshman Natalie Crawford.
At the 2024 meet, Carpenter also sacrificed a potential team title by sitting her 1–2 runners, CC Ludwig and Kiley DeFusco. The following weekend, both returned to the lineup for the State Meet — and the Clippers walked away with their second straight crown.
We could see that happen again on Saturday. We did the math — assigning projected times for the trio based on their performances this fall and, in the case of McCue and Bianchi, what they also ran last year — and this one could come down to that all-important fifth runner. All three are capable of replicating what La Salle did. Add in CC Ludwig, who was second at the class meet with a season best of 18:51.95 and Gabby Stoothoff, who was fourth overall in a PR of 19:07.34, and this battle between La Salle and Cumberland could be determined by single digits. It’s that close!
Where does North Kingstown fit into the picture? Do the Skippers have a chance to make it happen? It’s a long-shot, but a lot of things will have to go their way for an upset to occur on the Chieftains’ covered-bridge trail.
Judging by what we saw this weekend, we have La Salle and Cumberland scoring between 40 and 50 points with the Skippers scoring close to 85 points. Abbie Tighe, who was second at the State Meet last year, missed about half her season due to health issues. She’s been steadily progressing since first competing this fall in a dual meet back on Sept. 30. This past weekend, she was tenth overall in 19:43.84. A healthy Tighe ran a best of 18:28.96 at the class meet last year. While we don’t expect her to be near that time on Saturday, don’t be surprised to see her run low 19 minutes in a meet of this caliber.
The Skippers’ top runner this season, Lucy Stowe, didn’t have the race she was anticipating at the class meet, placing 14th overall in 20:18.80. We expect she’ll bounce back this weekend. At her best, Stowe is capable of running 18:30-18:40 at Ponaganset. She was fifth last year with a time of 18:48.44.
There’s also Maura Whitney, who like Tighe, missed a few meets this fall due to health issues. Her best this season was 20:36.20 on a very fast 5K at the Twilight Invitational. That time is more than a minute off her PR of 19:16.58 a year ago at the same meet. This past weekend, Whitney ran 21:09.14.
There are a lot of question marks on the Skippers, and it’s tough to tell if whether or not head coach Keven O’Neil told his team to hold back a little to prep for this weekend. Guess we’ll find out on Saturday.
East Greenwich, Cranston West and Barrington appear to be the remaining squads that have a chance at a top-six finish this weekend and ticket to the New England Championships on Nov. 8 at Thetford Academy. East Greenwich and Barrington went 1-2 in the Class B meet and Cranston West was an impressive third overall in Class A, highlighting a breakthrough season that saw the Falcons win the Suburban Division with a perfect 9-0 mark.
