In her final season of cross country for Bishop Feehan, Abbie McNulty is hoping for some big things by season’s end.
So far, she’s off to a good start.
Just two weeks after smashing the course record at the Martha Vineyard Invitational, McNulty was back in her record-breaking form Saturday afternoon at the seventh annual New Balance Ocean State Invitational. The Shamrock senior and Cumberland, R.I. resident pulled away from the lead pack about the midway point of the Championship Division race and won going away with a course mark of 17 minutes, 48.54 seconds at Goddard State Park.
“I try to work on different strategies in each race to see what works best,” McNulty said. “This one I kind of wanted to try hang with the lead pack for the first mile and a half or so and if I felt good push it. That’s kind of what I did. I hung with them for a mile and a half and just started pushing it more and more.”
McNulty finished about 80-meters ahead of her closest pursuer, Westhill (Conn.) senior Claire Howlett, who placed second at 18:01.21 Gabriel Richichi of New Fairfield (Conn.), was third in 18:10.62.
North Kingstown sophomore Bethany Nunnery had the top finish statewide for R.I., placing 21st with a 19:40.07 clocking.
“I was a little nervous,” said Nunnery, about the race. “I just wanted to do my best and I think I achieved that.”
Despite a convincing margin over her rivals the last mile, McNulty never felt a victory was assured until the final long straightaway to the finish line.
“You just never know,” she said. “That last 800 meters is really up in the air unless you have an 800-meter lead. I was still pushing and still kicked at the end. I was never really confident that I was going to take it away. I still had my guard.
McNulty fell short of her personal best of 17:32, set at Martha’s Vineyard, but she was more than pleased with the effort on a sunny and warm afternoon at the Warwick park. She’s also looking forward to what the fall season has in store.
Last year the slender runner led her team to the Division 2 state title at the All-State Meet by capturing the individual title. She continued to excel in the distance events on the indoor and outdoor surfaces during a breakthrough junior campaign that included a stellar 10:28.05 for 3,200 meters at the Loucks Games in May.
“We moved up a division to Division I. I’ would like to win that meet,” McNulty said. “We go to Nike (Cross-Country) Regionals every year and I really want to go to Oregon. I missed it by a spot last year. This year I really want to go. That’s my second goal. I want to get to states first and I want to qualify at Nike and go to Oregon.”
As a team, Bishop Feehan placed second to Red Bank Catholic of New Jersey, 64-88. Archbishop Wood (Penn.) was third with 149 points and Hamilton-Wenham (Mass.) was fourth with 153 points.
The Shamrocks suffered somewhat of a setback in the meet when No. 2 runner Brynna Harum collapsed at the finish line, apparently due to the heat. Harum, who recovered from the mishap, was Feehan’s fifth and final scoring runner, taking 28th overall at 19:42.01.
“It was probably heat,” Bishop Feehan coach Bob L’Homme said. “She probably didn’t hydrate properly during the week. Today, she had plenty of water, but you got to get those couple of days in before the hot weather. We weren’t anticipating this hot weather, but that’s the way it is.”
Red Bank secured the title by getting its top four runners across the line before Feehan’s second, senior Kate Svensen (20th, 19:39.69). The meet featured a number of strong schools.
“I didn’t realize how many number-one ranked teams were here,” L’Homme said. “I didn’t do a lot of research but I kind of briefly looked it over. Red 
Bank, I knew they were pretty good. When I came here, that was the only team I knew about. They are good. They put a nice pack together…Overall, I am happy. We came in second. All the other Mass. teams we were concerned about, we did pretty well against them and I am happy about that.”
In the Varsity Division I race, Thomaston (Conn.) senior Sabrina Olsen broke the tape a winner with a time of 19:19.19. Finishing second was Caitlan Swanson of Tolland (Conn.) at 19:35.90. Pilgrim’s Danika Wayss was 15th with a time of 20:37.13. Exeter/West Greenwich’s Katie Miller was 17th at 20:38.57. Tolland easily copped the team title with a 37-99 victory over runner-up Dover Sherborn (Mass).
Fairfield Warde (Conn.) senior Cate Allen took the Varsity Div. 2 race with a solid 18:37.55 clocking. Junior Catalina Dominick of Danvers (Mass.), also crack 19 minutes by placing second with a time of 18:56.14. Lincoln’s Amanda L’Esperance was 23rd overall at 20:30.73, while Chariho’s Isabel Baker was 27th with a time of 20:36.0.
Allen went to work quickly in her race. After running with a small pack in the early stages, she put on a surge around the mile mark in the wooded section of the course and was never seriously challenged the remainder of the way.
It was her second straight title in the Div. 2 race.
“I was a little more aware of the course this year because last year I had never ran it before,” she said. “This year I kind of knew what I was coming into.”
