Prior to the Blackstone Valley Invitational on Friday, it was understood that both the boys’ and girls’ teams from Cumberland High were going to use the meet for a strong tempo run.
It still didn’t stop the Clippers from displaying their dominance in the area.
Taking six of the first seven placements in the boys’ race, Cumberland easily claimed the team title by defeating rival Lincoln, 18-54, on the Monastery grounds. The Lady Clippers had similar results in their race with a relative easy 24-56 decision over Burrillville.
Senior Alex Southiere ran away from the boys’ field, covering the five-kilometer course in a time of 17 minutes, 3 seconds. He was 38 seconds ahead of sophomore Will Mardo. Breaking up the Clipper party was Lincoln’s Nick Ryan, who placed third in 17:45. The next four finishers belonged to Cumberland with Abdullah Kaba (fourth, 17:50), David Agudelo (fifth, 17:54), Matt Smith (sixth, 18:09) and Matt Fownes (seventh, 18:17) occupying the slots. Also placing in the top 10 were Burrillville’s Ben Cornell (eighth, 18:24) and Zach Durand (ninth, 18:46) and Cumberland’s Kylie Creamer (tenth, 18:55).
Burrillville senior Betsy Dumais won the girls’ crown with a solid 20:42 clocking. Dumais was running side by side with Lincoln’s Amanda L’Esperance in the early stages of the race with the Clippers’ Amy Laverty in third. Laverty eventually overtook L’Esperance to take runner-up honors with a time of 20:53. The Lion harrier placed third at 21:00. Rounding out the top finishers were Cumberland’s Meaghan Scullin (fourth, 21:48), Kerry Connolly (fifth, 22:35), Ashley Bricault (sixth, 22:40) and Hannah Tavares (seventh, 22:40) and Burrillville’s Kaidy Cornell (eighth, 23:01), St. Raphael Academy’s Haley Howarth (ninth, 23:13) and Lincoln’s Sabrina Oliveira (tenth, 23:22).