The State Meet has come and gone, and now it’s on to this Saturday’s New England Championships in Belfast, Maine, for the qualifying teams and individuals. Congratulations to our team champions, Bishop Hendricken and Cumberland High, who once again showcased their incredible depth to come out on top. Additional praise goes to Hendricken’s Colby Flynn and La Salle’s Alyssa Parenteau on their much-deserved individual titles.
Of course, we can’t ignore all the other schools and runners who earned the right to traverse the trails of Ponaganset’s Covered Bridge Trails at a meet that absolutely never disappoints. Your hard work and dedication deserve just as much recognition.
Kudos to all!
As we often do following the State Meet, we’d like to take a moment to recognize a few accomplishments and highlights from this past weekend.
***
Earning a spot on the first-team All-State squad is no easy task. Simply put, a runner must finish among the top seven against the very best the state has to offer. It’s an accomplishment that speaks volumes about a runner’s consistency and ability to compete at the highest level.
Prior to this year’s State Meet, just nine runners had accomplished the feat, all of them girls. That elite group includes Coventry’s Nancy Krolewski (1980-83), South Kingstown’s Rose Wood (1995-98), Lincoln’s Liz Carlson (1999-2002), Mount Hope/La Salle’s Karina Tavares (2012-15), South Kingstown’s Ellie Lawler (2014-17), Westerly’s Randi Barr (2014-17), Barrington/La Salle’s Grace Connolly (2014-17), East Greenwich’s Kylee Shunney (2019-22), and North Kingstown/Saint Raphael Academy’s Rory Sullivan (2020-23).
On Saturday, North Kingstown’s Abbie Tighe became the 10th member of that elite group. Tighe finished fourth at the State Meet, clocking a personal-best 18:29.2 to earn her fourth first-team All-State selection. She placed seventh as a freshman in 2023, finished as the runner-up as a sophomore, and took fourth last year.
Well done, Abbie!
***
It’s not uncommon for runners to follow in the footsteps of a parent and compete in cross country and/or track and field as a high-schooler. We’ve seen many examples of that over the years. But taking it a step further and matching the accomplishments of family members by earning All-State honors makes the story even more special.
With a third-place finish at this past weekend’s meet, Providence Country Day’s Leo Woodman continued a family tradition of championship-meet success. Not only did his father achieve All-State honors, but so did his uncle. Woodman’s dad was former St. Raphael standout Keith Woodman, a two-time first-team All-Stater who finished fifth in 1992 and second in 1993. His uncle was Bishop Hendricken alumnus Andrew Woodman, who placed seventh in 2002.
***
A strong knowledge of the sport and an understanding of how to properly train athletes for optimum success are important qualities of a good coach. But anyone familiar with coaching knows those aren’t the only things that can make a difference in how athletes train and perform. Being able to motivate the athletes who make up your team is equally important, and sometimes even more so. When it comes to cross country and track & field, we have several coaches who fit that mold.
One such coach is Toll Gate’s Norm Bouthillier. It’s hard to miss the longtime Titans mentor, who can always be heard, no matter how far away he is from you at a cross country or track meet. Ask any athlete what gave them that extra push when they felt they had nothing left, and chances are they’ll point to their coach’s words of encouragement when the going got tough.
Coach Norm was his typical animated self at Saturday’s meet. We had a chance to see him shortly after learning his girls’ team finished sixth overall and earned a trip to this weekend’s New England Championships. Combine the excitement of a child on Christmas morning with that of someone holding a winning lottery ticket, then multiply it by 10. That’s the kind of emotion the Toll Gate coach displayed when he learned his team had grabbed the final qualifying spot for New Englands, marking the program’s first trip since 2009, when his Titans finished fourth overall.
It doesn’t get any better than that.
***
The future looks bright for the youngest of our competitors, particularly on the girls’ side. Among the top eight finishers, four were underclassmen, led by South Kingstown freshman Emma Morrissey. Morrissey finished second overall, just 1.1 seconds behind the Rams’ Parenteau, with a PR of 18:17.9. Barrington sophomore Carly Gill placed third overall in 18:20.9. Rounding out the talented quartet were Cumberland freshman Caylee Kurbec, who finished fifth in 18:33.9, and her sophomore teammate Natalie Crawford, who placed eighth in 18:58.1.
***
We’re always impressed by the maturity and good sportsmanship displayed by our young athletes at a championship meet like the State Meet. Oftentimes, we see these athletes congratulating their fellow competitors at the conclusion of a meet, showing just as much excitement for their competitors’ performances as they do for their own.
When things don’t go quite as planned, that’s where the maturity often comes into play. We talked to St. Raphael’s Mackenzie Lickert after her seventh-place finish. After winning her second straight Class C title last week, Lickert made it clear that her goal was to win Saturday’s meet. She gave it her best effort in her final competition at Ponaganset, clocking a PR of 18:37.4. Lickert kept her head held high, despite falling short of her original goal.
“I ran my heart out, I worked so hard. I did everything I could,” she said. “The race didn’t go the way I wanted but I ran my heart out and that’s all I could do. I have been working through a back injury all season, and today it didn’t go my way. I’ll keep working hard, and come back for more. I’m proud of myself.”
She should be, and so should all the other runners who competed on Saturday whether or not they achieved their pre-race goals.
