State Meet: It's Hawks again! (photos added)

Rhode Island State Championships
Stephen Mazzone

(All photos by Jerry Silberman of risportsphoto.com)

La Salle coach Ken Skelly couldn’t have asked for more from his runners.

Neither could Bishop Hendricken coach Jim Doyle.

Unfortunately, just one team is crowned a champion when the meet is done, and on Sunday it was the Hawks that were just a smidgen better on Ponaganset’s covered-bridge trail, capturing their sixth straight title at the RIIL State Meet with a 37-42 victory over the Rams.

 “They came with their ‘A’ game. We came with our ‘A’ game,” said Doyle, whose team held off the Rams a week earlier with a 30-34 decision at the Class A Championship. “We were just a little luckier today than they were. We were a little better and that’s all it came down to.”

As expected, Colin Tierney earned individual honors. The Hawk senior, the No. 1 runner all season long, led from gun-to-wire and posted a winning time of 15 minutes, 49.01 seconds. The next three positions saw the squads swap placements with La Salle sophomore Jack Salisbury finishing second,  just edging Hendricken junior Michael Potter at the line with a time of 15:54.25 to Potter’s 15:54.55. The Rams’ fantastic freshman DJ Principe took fourth with a 15:56.55 clocking.

One of the keys for the Hawks was the finish of Potter, who had his best performance in state meet competition since bursting onto the scene as a ninth-grade phenom.

“Michael stepped up,” Doyle said. “He was very relaxed. He was outstanding today. I always knew he could run like that. It was just all about going out there and staying relaxed. He did a great job.”

Potter, who placed sixth last week at the Class A meet, moved into second place at the two-mile mark and maintained that position until Salisbury sprinted by him just before the line. Even though he finished just five seconds behind his teammate, Potter’s goal was not necessarily to go for the win. It was all about team.

“I kind of gave up the idea of going with Tierney and going for the individual win,” he said. “I figured it was kind of best to stay behind the La Salle kids and get second place. I kind of forfeited the individual spot for the team victory.”

Once again some unhung heroes, runners that didn’t quite figure in the mix at the start of the season, picked up crucial points for the Hawks.  Sophomore Tom Grizzetti followed up his surprising fourth-place finish at the class meet by taking sixth overall at 16:15.51. Senior teammate Collin Manning was ninth in 16:24.23 and sophomore Dominic Parlato was 18th with a 16:45.42 clocking.

All three runners were on the JV team last year.

“They made a big difference for us,” Doyle stated.

In winning his first individual state title, Tierney took charge from the opening gun and led through a first mile split of 4:50. While he appeared relaxed, the slender Hawk didn’t necessarily feel that way.

“I felt very tired,” he admitted. “I just decided to stick it in there and get it done; go for the one spot for the team and hopefully come out with a state championship. That was the goal.”

Doyle felt his senior did a good job staying focused in the meet.

“Being the favorite is not a good thing because all the pressure is on you. He handles the pressure really well and he stuck with his race plan,” he said. “He knew what he had to do. He was more concerned about the team championship, more than anything else. He’s always that way. I knew that if he got that number one that would be really big for the team score. That’s what he set out to do. He tried to stay relaxed the first mile, pick it up a little bit in the second mile, get a lead and hold on to win. That’s basically what he did.”

Comprising the scoring for La Salle was Salisbury, Principe, junior Jake Grundy (11th, 16:29.74), junior Dan Paiva (12th, 16:31.15) and junior Christopher Notarianni (13th, 16:32.41).

“Hat’s off to (Hendricken),” Skelly said. “They’re the ones that went out there and did such a great job. We had a lot of great individual performances throughout the season, and we had some today. We’ve had a little difficult time putting it all together as a team and today we did but you still end up getting second.”

The two teams will meet each other again on Saturday at the New England Championships in Manchester, N.H.

“Right now it’s about being resilient and saying look lets go back out next week where we go head-to-head and challenge them at the New England’s and see what we can do there,” Skelly said. “It’s a matter of state pride. Our kids, there is no reason to hold their heads down at all. They did a tremendous job. They really displayed what being a student-athlete at La Salle really is. I am very proud of all our kids.”  

East Greenwich placed third as a team for the second straight year with 74 points. Senior Garrett Scanlon placed fifth overall with a time of 16:05.77. Junior Tommy Sommer also secured a first-team, all-state selection by taking seventh at 16:20.33. Junior Noah Barreto was tenth (16:25.47), senior Angelo Acker was 26th (16:59.42) and sophomore Dylan DePriest was 28th (17:11.16).

North Kingstown senior Dallin Smith led his team to a fifth-place finish by taking eighth overall with a time of 16:21.33.

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