What's on Tap this Weekend!

New York and Connecticut will both have their biggest meets of the cross-country season this weekend and both will be the destinations of choice for nearly a dozen of our Rhode Island schools this weekend.

The Big Apple will be hosting its popular Reebok Manhattan Invitational at historic Van Cortlandt Park on Saturday. In the featured Eastern States race, La Salle Academy will have its nationally-ranked varsity boys' and girls' squads on the starting line. The Lady Rams are coming off a dominating performance at the Maine Festival of Champions, a meet it was a last-minute entry after the cancellation of the Great American X-C Festival. Ranked No. 10 in the country, La Salle has a chance to pull off the upset against a quality field that features defending champion Fayetteville-Manlius, which also won its seventh straight Nike Cross Nationals' crown in 2014. In last year's meet, the Rams placed second to F-M. The boys will be racing for the first time in two weeks. The last time was in upstate New York where the Rams place second in the Bowdoin Classic, led by an individual victory from junior D.J. Principe. La Salle finished as a runner-up despite the absence of one of its top runners, senior Jack Salisbury, who will also be on the sidelines at Manhattan. Look for senior Matt Bouthillette and junior D.J. Principe to battle with the leaders on the challenging 2.5-mile layout.

Chariho Regional, Coventry, Cumberland and Bishop Hendricken will also be heading to NYC this weekend. For boys, Chariho and Coventry are entered in the Varsity D race and Hendricken will answer the gun in the Varsity E, a race its certainly capable of capturing with its level of talent this fall. The La Salle girls will also have one of their squads in Varsity A along with Chariho.

Less than two hours away from the Manhattan Invite, several 1,000 runners will be competing at scenic Wickham Park in Manchester for the annual Wickham Park Invitational. In last year's Championship Race, the East Greenwich boys were fourth out of 12 schools. The Avenger return an equally-strong squad that is currently ranked No. 3 in the state. East Greenwich was second this past weekend at the Woods Trail Run where its top runner, Jackson Cronin, was tenth overall. North Kingstown and Barrington also also scheduled to compete in the Championship Race. Keep an eye on N.K. freshman Sam Toolin, who will run his first 5K in a major meet. He'll need to crack 16 minutes to make the top 15 nationally. Smithfield and The Prout School will also make the trek to Wickham for the boys' meet.

In the girls' races, North Kingstown will be among the field of the Championship Race. East Greenwich, Scituate, Smithfield and Bay View will also represent R.I.