Franklin Park for one of the oldest high school meets in New England. Historic Van Cortlandt Park for one of the most prestigious competition in the northeast region. Cape Cod Fairgrounds for one of the most popular nighttime events in Massachusetts.
Those were the chosen destinations for a fair number of Rhode Island teams and athletes this past weekend as they get in their final preparations for the championship season that’s less than two weeks away.
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Cumberland Hgh and Toll Gate made the trip to Franklin Park in Boston for the 62nd annual Catholic Memorial Invitational. which experienced one of its biggest meets in the last three decades. Cumberland ran in the Red Race, the more competitive of two varsity races that were were held on the challenging five-kilometer course. Continuing his strong season. the Clippers’ Sam Henderson finished fourth overall with a time of 16 minutes, 5.8 seconds. Matt Giardina of Bishop Guertin (NH) captured the individual crown, clocking a winning 15:36.2.
Henderson’s time would have challenged for the overall title in the Silver Race, which was won by Ryan Leslie of Billerica in 16:05.5. The talented junior came on strong in the second half of he race. He was in eighth at the midway point.
“After the one mile mark, there was a big gap through the 1K or so and back to our group,” said Henderson, who passed through the 3K mark in 9:52.3. “We closed that during the last part of the first mile and the second mile and then I picked off a few guys in the third mile.”
Henderson is a few weeks removed from a stellar performance at the Manchester (NH) Invitational where he ran a best of 15:41 for the very difficult 5K at Derryfield Park.
“I love Manchester,” he said. “Traveling overnight with the team is always awesome… Manchester has that third mile. Everyone looks at the second mile as being terrible. We just get through it and fly the third mile. I actually PR’d in the third mile there.”
As a team, Cumberland finished seventh at Catholic Memorial with 169 points. Coe Brown (NH) Academy eked out a 107-108 victory over Lexington for the overall title. The Clippers held the lead in the early stage, holding a seven-point advantage over Coe Brown at the 1.5K mark.
Compiling the scoring for Cumberland was Henderson, Nolan Roglaski (40th, 17:23.0), Connor Magill (44th, 17:30.3), Jake Schonhoff (48th, 17:33.0), and Noah Brown (51st, 17:35.0).
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The Ocean State manufactured some impressive performance at the Manhattan College Invitational at Van Cortlandt.
Unlike year’s past, we had a limited number of runners that competed in the featured Eastern States Championship. The few that did, came through with solid efforts. Chariho Regional’s Erin van Housen, a winner in the Letter A race last year, competed in Eastern States this weekend and finished 14th overall with a time of 15 minutes, 6.70 seconds for the 2.5-mile course. The Charger senior improved on her time from last year by nearly 15 seconds! In the boys’ race, Ponaganset was the lone RI team team on the line. The Chieftains were 20th overall. Jeremy Roe (46th, 13:22.50) and Owen Klein (13:25.40) were the top finishers.
Pilgrim’s Keaney Bayha continues to impress us at this juncture of the season. The Patriots junior was the quickest among the girls that made the trip to NYC. She was second in the Letter C race where she dipped under 15 minutes with a time of 14:57.10. A total of 156 runners answered the gun in the race.
La Salle Academy and Saint Raphael Academy faced each other in the Letter A race. The Rams were seventh overall, while the Saints were ninth.
SRA senior Rory Sullivan was the top finisher, placing fourth with a time of 15:16.20. Teammate Chandanley Boyce was 20th at 16:12.90. Mia Bettez (20th, 16:18.50), Maeve Casey (32nd, 16:36.90) and Jayden Donnelly (33rd, 16:38.50) led the Rams.
In the Freshmen ‘A’ race, La Salle’s Alyssa Parenteau raced to one of the fastest times in the meet’s history. Parenteau captured the individual title with a time of 9:11.50. She won by 30 seconds with the third best clocking all-time at Van Corlandt.
On the boys’ side, La Salle sophomore Marshall Vernon was the fastest of the day among our state entries. Vernon was a runner-up in the Letter B race where he was timed in 13-minutes flat. Teammate Tristan McDonough was 23rd overall in 13:55.50.
Hendricken, a frequent Eastern States competitor, competed in the Letter C race on Saturday. The Hawks placed second overall with 93 points. Haddonfield Memorial (NJ) took the hardware with 41 points. No surprise, the Hawks’ top runner throughout the season, Jack Moretta, was the first across the line for the defending state champions, placing tenth overall with a time of 13:18.50. The Hawks had their next five harriers finish within 14 seconds of each other with Ollie Ide (16th, 13:25.10), Sam Zabbo (20th, 13:33.40), Will Olson (21st, 13:36.50), Jacob Silva (26th, 13:39.0) and freshman Colby Flynn (27th, 13:39.50) occupying those spots.
JJ Rocha and Alex Ramos were 16th and 17th, respectively, for St. Ray’s in the Letter F race. Rocha was timed in 13:46.30, Ramos clocked 13:49.50. The Saints were seventh in the team standings with 206 points.
The future looks strong for La Salle. The Rams had a trio of runners among the leaders in the Freshmen A race. Will Souza was sixth overall in 8:33.20 for the 1.5-mile course. He was followed by classmates Matt Navarro (eighth, 8:40.20) and Noah dos Reis (11th, 8:43.50).
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We had a few of our runners join the sub-16 club this past weekend on a lightning-fast 5K course at the Cape Cod Fairgrounds, site of the Twilight Invitational. On Friday of the two-day meet, Smithfield’s Jason Padula and MIchael Goodson and Mount St. Charles’ Ethan Fadden were all under the mark in the Small School race. Padula, who has already broken 16 minutes this fall, blazed to a PR of 15:29 to place fourth overall. Fadden was ninth in 15:48.8, while Goodson was timed in 15:53.7 for 11th overall. On Saturday, which featured the Large School races, Barrington’s Brandon Piedade (13th, 15:42.2) and Myles Napolitano (15:44.6) broke 16 minutes. By the way, Eagles had a strong, overall performance in the race. They were fifth among the 20 schools with 139 points. Elliot Lefort (32nd, 16:21.3), Connor Curran (33rd, 16:24.2) and Marius Bonard (64th, 17:05.8) completed the scoring.
The Eagles has a chance to talk with OSR correspondent Sully Cummins. Hear what they had to say about their effort above.
As we reported in our Day 1 story. East Greenwich won the Small School girls’ title on Friday. The defending state champions appear to be peaking at just the right with the championship season less than two weeks away. The EG boys were second in the boys’ race. The Avengers will be looking for solid performances at the upcoming class and state meets. Friday’s runner-up showing should provide a confidence-booster leading up to those meets.
