Bishop Hendricken faces its biggest test of the season yet as the Hawks head to historic Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx, New York, for Saturday’s Manhattan University Cross Country Invitational. Hendricken is entered in the Eastern States Championships, a race that attracts some of the top cross-country programs from across the region.
According to the latest TullyRunners rankings, which use performance-based speed ratings to evaluate runners across different races and account for variations in course difficulty, Hendricken ranks among the top contenders heading into the weekend.
The Hawks enter the meet riding a wave of momentum after capturing back-to-back victories at the Bowdoin Park XC Classic in Wappingers Falls, New York, on Sept. 26 and the Shore XC Invitational in New Jersey last Saturday.
Following those impressive performances, the Hawks moved to No. 1 in the Northeast in the DyeStat rankings. Hendricken will get a chance to prove it deserves that distinction when it faces two other squads ranked among the top five: perennial New Jersey powerhouse Christian Brothers Academy (CBA) and La Salle College (PA), which occupy the No. 2 and No. 4 spots, respectively. Also in the field is Broughton High, one of the top teams in North Carolina and a squad that ranks just ahead of the Hawks in the TullyRunners rankings.
The Hawks’ Colby Flynn, a winner at Bowdoin and Shore, and teammate Shepard Butler, are among the top seven entries in the race.
Team-wise, the key matchup will be between the Hawks and CBA. Both teams won their respective races at Bowdoin two weeks ago, the site of next month’s Nike Cross Regionals Northeast, where both schools will be looking to secure one of the two qualifying spots for Nike Cross Nationals. In the combined scoring of their two races at Bowdoin, just 11 points separated Hendricken and CBA.
The two teams had a chance to match up at the Shore Invitational, but the third-place Colts weren’t at full strength, with several of their top varsity runners absent. It should be a different story this time around.
While the Hendricken-CBA showdown will command much of the attention, several other Rhode Island teams and individuals will be looking to make their mark in the Bronx.
In the girls’ Eastern States Championship, La Salle Academy and Cranston West are among the teams entered.
La Salle recently completed an undefeated 8-0 season in the Metropolitan Division. The Rams, whom we currently rank No. 2 in Rhode Island behind three-time defending state champion Cumberland, will get a good gauge of their progress when they face some of the region’s best on one of its more demanding courses. This will be their first major competition since placing second to Cumberland at the Bowdoin Park XC Classic.
Cranston West placed third in the Suburban Division with a 7-2 record and will compete in its first major invitational of the season. The meet should give the Falcons a better idea of where they stand this fall in terms of talent.
The La Salle boys will be competing in the ‘A’ Race with teammates Matt Lewis and Will Souza listed as some of the top contenders. St. Raphael Academy has teams entered in the girls’ and boys’ ‘B’ races. For the girls, look for a big race from senior Mackenzie Lickert. The runner-up at last year’s State Meet is coming off a course-record performance in her dual-meet finale at Slater Park on Monday, when she clocked 16:50 for the 2.85-mile course, a whopping 40 seconds faster than her previous best.
Chariho Regional and Classical will also make the four-hour trek to NYC. The Chargers are in the ‘E’ Race, while the Purple are in the ‘F’ Race.
