As coaches often do this time of year with the class and state championships occupying the next two weekends, North Smithfield’s long-time mentor Amy Gravel gave star runner Julia Dowling a specific instruction to utilize Thursday’s Skee Carter Memorial Invitational as a tempo run
She didn’t listen.
While she held back for the first mile, the NS sophomore couldn’t resist the temptation of pouring it on the final two. The result – a new PR and winning time of 19 minutes, 25.80 seconds for the five-kilometer course, and a solid confidence-booster for the upcoming championship meets.
Dowling sensed she was onto something special during that initial mile.
“I was trying to pace a teammate and then after the first mile I was all paced,” she said. “I fell great. The lead pack was right ahead. That’s when people started to fall off so I was like, ‘I can do this.’ I just pushed myself to get there.”
Dowling finished 70 meters ahead of Cranston West’s Lilliana Prendergast, who was timed in 19:35.48 for second. The Falcons’ Kristen Fontaine was third in 19:38.78. Burrillville’s Jillian Russell (fourth, 19:44.65) and East Greenwich freshman Ali Walsh (fifth, 19:47.97) rounded out the top five.
Dowling’s effort continues what’s been a solid season on the trails, one that’s included two other sub-20 minute performance and a fourth-place finish at the season-opening Injury Fund Carnival where she clocked 20:08.83 at Deerfield Park. The talented harrier admitted she is somewhat surprised with her success this fall, considering last year as a ninth-grader she was 21st at the Class C Championships and 75th at the State Meet.
A productive summer of training proved to be the difference.
“Last year I was very far from where I am now,” said Dowling, who ran a season best of 21:06 at last year’s Skee Carter Invite. “I put in so much work this summer and I continued to push throughout the season with training with the top (runners) of our team. That definitely helped me come to a better position.”
That better position could transfer to prosperity during the championship season.
“The goal is first-team all class. It’s just something to put on my resume,” she said. “I would love to compete and put myself up there as well as (the states). I would really love to get all state. I mean, amazing goal. I hope I can try and accomplish that.”
In the team competition, East Greenwich had its first four runners across the line before any of his competitors’ third to easily win the title with a 43-75 decision over South Kingstown. North Smithfield was third with 109 points. EG went 5-6-7-12-16 with its scoring runners with a quintet that included Walsh, sophomore Olive Willis (19:54.22), freshman Lindsey Han (20:01.79), junior Brea Wood (21:06.80) and sophomore Kayla Siedliski (21:48.39).
***
The Avengers dominated the boys’ race, packing all seven of its varsity runners among the top nine to score just 17 points. Burrillville was a distant second with 77 points. South Kingstown took the bronze with 95 points.
East Greenwich swept the first three placements with junior David Hayes holding off senior teammate Luke Allen to claim the individual crown. Hayes was timed in 15:45.78, while Allen crossed the line at 15:48.12. Senior Brody Fahys was third at 16:30.47.
“I went off and just tried to lead it and get it out as soon as possible and assert dominance there,” Hayes said. “I saw Luke later on in the race and stuck with him and then I pushed at the end.”
The EG duo ran together for the final 800m of the race.
“He was up there in front the entire time,” Allen said. “I just tried to keep him in my sight, kind of keep him in striking distance. We finished together the last half mile or so.”
The Avengers had a gap of just 1:29 between their top five and averaged 16:25 for the 5K distance. Completing the scoring were sophomore Andrew Parisi (fifth, 16:45.21) and senior Joshua Valentine (sixth, 17:15.42). Freshman Jeremiah Moon (eighth, 17:29.36) and junior James Marcaccio (ninth, 17:30.07) also had solid performances. Burrillville teammates Arthur Ferris (fourth, 16:36.0), and Drew Gaulin (seventh, 17:24.28) and Cranston West’s Matt Petit (tenth, 17:36.31) were among the top 10.
East Greenwich, which finished second in the Suburban Division with a 10-1 record, has the school’s second biggest team in its history with 33 runners on the squad. It’s a squad with many interchangeable parts.
“We knew we were going to have a larger program (this year),” said head coach Sean Connelly. “Last year we graduated three seniors that were a big part of our team. This year we have four seniors, six juniors, we have nine freshmen, and the remainder is a large sophomore group. We are heavily buffered by underclassmen. We seem to have a strong running community in East Greenwich right now. A lot of these guys have played a role in that and sharing their passion for running. That has inspired a lot of young kids to come out for the sport.”
The Avengers have six of their seven runners from last year’s squad that finished fourth in the states. EG is looking to place high again with a team that has the potential to crack the top-3 with Bishop Hendricken the clear-cut favorite to win the title. The Avengers have also moved up to Class B after several years of success in Class C where they captured 15 crowns since 2005, including last fall.
Among some of the top performances by East Greenwich this season were a third-place finish in the Medium School race at the Wickham Park (CT) Invitational on Sept. 28 and runner-up honors in the combined results of the Woods Trail Run in Vermont on Oct. 5
“Our goal is to just always go out there and compete. We ran on some hard courses this year with Wickham Park and (Woods Trail),” Valentine said. “The goal coming in was to have fun, forget really about competing; have fun and get some times down. Now the focus is just on class and states.”
