Fownes, Lapierre rule roads at Cumberlandfest 5K

It was a homecoming of sorts on Saturday morning as a pair of former Cumberland High standouts earned the top prizes at the 23rd annual Cumberlandfest 5K road race at Diamond Hill State Park.

Tom Fownes, a 2012 grad and current URI runner, easily captured the men’s race with a time of 16 minutes, 41.6 seconds. He was minute ahead of second-place finisher and CHS senior Kevin Seaver, who finished the out-and-back course in a time of 17:42. Lapierre, who will be a junior at URI this fall, copped the women’s crown, placing tenth overall with a road PR of 19:33. Diane Knowles, 41, of Plainville, Mass., took runner-up honors by finishing 16th among the 99 finishers with a time of 21:03.

Fownes originally planned on using the race as a tempo run, but his competitive juices took over once the gun was fired.

“All of these road races turn into a little harder of an effort,” he said. “I wanted to just get out and get a good run in, not quite race but get in a good effort. I felt good. I felt pretty comfortable. There was no one pushing me so I just kind of ran hard.”

Fownes immediately took control. He opened up the first mile, which includes a tough quarter-mile incline on Diamond Hill Road, with a 5:28. He was a shade under 11 minutes by mile 2.

Finishing third overall in the race was Fownes’ younger brother and Cumberland junior Matt Fownes at 17:44. Alex Southiere, a senior at CHS was fourth at 17:54 and junior teammate Abdullah Kaba was fifth in 18:04.

Fownes is preparing for his sophomore season with the Rams. As a freshman, he had bests of 26:32 for the 8K, 4:29 for the mile and 1:59 for the 800.

“The summer is going really well,” he said. “I have increased my mileage a lot. I am running in the 70s, which is a lot more than I ran previously. I am in a tough training block now. Obviously this race didn’t mean anything to me now. I am in the middle of a big week. I should be looking to PR in all my events this year.”

In the women’s race, Lapierre was alone from the start – at least as far as her other competitors in the field. She ran negative splits, hitting the first mile at 6:40, her second mile at 6:20 and her final mile in less than six minutes.

“I was looking to get my time down this summer,” said Lapierre, whose previous best on the roads was 19:56. “With the heat, it was really hard this entire summer. I have just been focusing on mainly getting my mileage up – 45 (miles) at the beginning of the summer and I am at 60 (miles) now.”

“Yesterday was my first day off in a month. I have been training really hard and I was really happy with today,” she continued. “I couldn’t have asked for a better race, better weather and better experience. It was really good.”

Lapierre experienced a few knee injuries this past year at URI that sort of shortened her first season as a collegiate runner. She was only able to compete twice on the outdoor oval where she ran a time in the 19:20-range for the 5K.

She now feels fit and ready to prosper during her junior season. Pre-season for cross country begins on Aug. 28.

“As far as training, as far as what I was expecting for myself, the summer has been going great,” she said. “The beginning of the summer it was a little hard to get into it. For the most part, now that I know (cross-country season) is coming up and know what is expected of me, I have definitely been training my hardest to get myself up there. Most of my days of training consist of running at like a 7:30 pace for any of my miles, doing six or above.”