It was 42 years since the last time they won a state title.
But that wasn’t the only motivator for the Cumberland girls at Saturday’s RIIL State Cross-Country Championships. The Clippers also had last year’s performance on their minds. At the 2022 meet, the Blue & White were the pre-race favorites, but came up short in the end, taking runner-up honors to defending champion East Greenwich.
“We wanted redemption,” junior Rose Tuomisto said “We wanted to use kind of what we learned from last year’s meet and use it to our advantage.”
What exactly did they learn from their 22-point loss to the Avengers?
As senior Anna Kalafut quipped – “That going out hard is not always the best way to go.”
On a perfect day for racing, a more patient Clipper squad proved just that on Ponaganset’s Covered-Bridge Trail. Holding back in the early stages, Cumberland did its damage during the final half of the race, paving the way to a 79-116 victory over second-place La Salle Academy. North Kingstown was right behind the Rams in third with 118 points. Rounding out the top six to earn a spot at next weekend’s New England Championships in Belfast, Maine was East Greenwich (fourth, 125 points). Moses Brown (fifth, 151 points) and Barrington (sixth, 189 points).
Cumberland’s triumph at the states is its first since capturing the crown in 1981, which finished off a dominant stretch of team titles that included four straight from 1976-79. The win also avenged a 10-point loss to La Salle at last weekend’s Class A meet.
“(Assistant) coach (Caitlyn Marino) and I had a good talk with the girls on Monday,” said head coach Marty Crowley. “We kind of put everything on the table. We didn’t race the way we were capable of last week. La Salle, North Kingstown, East Greenwich, Barrington, all really good, high-quality programs. We felt coming in, if we could just run our race, and do what we could and stay focused on the task at hand, we could win. It’s all the credit to the girls. They were absolutely amazing. We got out, ran what we were supposed to run. We finished strong again. We picked people off coming home, and that was the key for us.”
Saint Raphael Academy’s Rory Sullivan took home the individual title. Just like her dominant performance at last week’s Class C meet, where she was more than a minute ahead of Narragansett’s Madeleine O’Neall. the Saints’ senior dictated the pace from the start and coasted to a more than 20-second best of 18:08.79 for the five-kilometer course. She was followed by expected top finishers – Chariho senior Erin vonHousen (second, 18:18.30) and Plihrim junior Keaney Bayha (third, 18:27.11).
After Bayha, it was then that the race for the team title began. After placing sixth at the class meet a week earlier, junior Kiley DeFusco manufactured her best effort of the season by securing fourth with an all-time best of 18:35.41. Cumberland had its next three runners – sophomore Charli McCue (15th, 19:37.55), Tuomisto (17th, 19:42.31) and freshman Anna Branchi (19:58.19) – before the Rams’ fourth and solidified the crown by getting its next two harriers before their rival’s fifth with freshman Gabby Stoothoff taking 34th overall (20:35.90) and Kalafut crossing the line in 46th (21:01.53).
“We knew what we had it in our tool box,” Kalafut said. “Last week was just a practice. We knew what was best for us and had to crush it this week.”
Speaking of crush it, that’s exactly what Sullivan did against an outstanding field, including title contenders vonHousen and Bayha. The SRA standout put herself in rare company with her victory, where she made the first-team, all-state squad for the fourth straight year.
“I am really happy,” she said. “This is everything I’ve ever dreamed of. I worked so hard the past four years. When I was a freshman, I wrote down in my running journal, I want to win a state championship and to do that my senior year is everything I could have asked for. I am really happy.”
Sullivan forged to the front early in the race and, just like last week, hit her opening mile in 5:37. The only difference to the class meet was she had some company on Saturday. The Patriots’ Bayha was just one second behind and the next dozen runners were all under six minutes, including vonHousen, DeFusco, Mount Hope’s Jessica Deal (fifth, 18:35.41), O’Neill (sixth, 18:46.58) and North Kingstown freshman Abbie Tighe (seventh, 18:47.47), who all secured first-team, all-state honors by the finish.
Sullivan admitted her pre-race plan was to mirror what she did at the class meet with a quick first mile.
“I know that’s what works for me,” she said. “I just run my own race. I knew that Erin is really good with hills. Keaney is really consistent and a talented runner. I think what set me aside is I just really pushed those hills in the back and just didn’t fall off.”
For vonHousen, it was redemption of sorts from last year’s meet where she faltered in the closing stages due the dehydration issues and struggled to a 20th-place finish after battling with the leaders for most of the race.
The Charger standout’s time was a best by more than 30 seconds!
“I am super, super happy,” she said. “I don’t always have the greatest races at Ponaganset, but today things kind of came together. I felt good and just had a really good race for me.”
Bayha continued her consistency the last month and a half with her strong showing and PR performance. She admitted this past week wasn’t exactly perfect leading up to the most important race of the season.
“I have been sick all week,” she said. “I could not breathe. But today was a good day. It was a good cross-country weather, a good cross-country race.”
A total of 12 runners broke 19 minutes on Saturday and 23 were under 20 minutes, The race had 139 finishers.
