We asked, and you responded.
Just who are the top returning runners that will hit the trails this season? After requesting your help on this site and through our Instagram account, with have compiled a top-10 list with your assistance of the runners we feel will be among our best this fall.
To start, we’re going to begin with our No. 6 through No. 10 picks and also the runners we believe are on the bubble. We’ll list them among our Honorable Mention at the bottom of this article. We lost a few standout runners to graduation from 2022-23, particularly the boys where six of our top seven from the State Meet has graduated. But returning are a strong mix of talented harriers we expect will make an impact.
Here’s our picks for the final five of our list and those on the verge of breaking through.
No. 6 – Sam Henderson, Cumberland
Henderson, along with Narragansett’s Cole Francis, were the only non-seniors among the top 13 finishers at last year’s State Meet. The Clipper junior was eighth at the early November meet with a PR of 16 minutes, 18.40 seconds. Henderson, a top swimmer for Cumberland during the winter months, didn’t compete on the indoor surface. He did compete in track in the spring and had a best of 9:14 for the 3K.
No. 7 – Noah Vanhorn, St. Raphael Academy
Vanhorn is another runner that had a strong State Meet as an underclassmen last year, placing 18th overall in 16:41.60. The SRA junior improved dramatically over the year, including running a 3K best of 9:05.16 at the St. Germain Invitational in mid May and placing 11th at the outdoor states with a 9:08.58 effort.
No. 8 – Connor Magill, Cumberland
Count Magill among those that experienced big gains from cross country to outdoor track. We’re expecting a breakthrough season on the trails for Clipper senior, who was 47th overall at the states in 2022. Magill, who is the son of St. Ray’s coach Chris Magill, is a hockey player during the winter months. In the spring, he proved to us, and some of you on social media, that he belongs on this list based on what he did in the spring, most notably in the 1,500m. After a best of 4:29 his sophomore year, he thrice went under 4:10 for the metric mile with an all-time best of 4:03.82 at the Hendricken Invitational. He also ran low two minutes for the 800m. This past weekend at the Bobby Doyle Summer Classic, Doyle averaged just under 5:30 pace per mile for the five-miler with a time of 27:24. That’s proof that his summer training has been going well.
No. 9 – Jeremy Roe, Ponaganset
When it comes to the State Meet, Roe has the home-field advantage among his fellow competitors as he’s able to race on a course that he gets to train on a daily basis. Last year he was fifth at the Class C meet with a PR of 16:44.30 on the covered-bridge trail and was 20th overall at the State Meet in 16:49.00. He ran a best of 4:14.30 for the 1,500m at the Hendricken Invitational.
No. 10 – Grady McGinnis, La Salle
As a sophomore last year, McGinnis was 23rd at the State Meet with a PR of 16:50.20. That was nearly a minute faster than what he ran at Ponaganset as a ninth-grader in the Class A race. Right now it looks like he’ll be among the Rams’ top runners this fall and we expect he’ll be ready to show some strong improvement this fall. He’s coming off a year where he had bests of 9:16.70 for the 3K and 4:13.51 for the 1,500m.
Honorable Mention: Sam Zabbo, Hendricken, Brandon Piedade, Barrington; Myles Napolitano, Barrington; Will Olson, Barrington; Devin Richard, Burrillville, Kaiden Moran; Cumberland, Luke Allen, East Greenwich
