COUNTDOWN TO X-C
The cross-country season officially started this week with the first official practice on Monday. During the next week, MileSplit Ri will feature the top boys and girls to watch this season in its Countdown to X-C series. The potential is there for some sizzling times on the trails. Just five runners have graduated from last year's top 14 finishers for both the boys and girls.
RUNNERS TO WATCH
Amy Laverty, junior, Cumberland High
The Clippers’ diminutive star finished eighth at the state meet in 2013, a year after her surprising seventh-place performance as a ninth-grader.
Amy is coming off an outdoor season where she finished sixth in the 3,000-meter run at the states with a personal best of 10:29.41. It was also a season where she dipped under five minutes three times for the 1,500m with a PB of 4:54.80 at the Mount Pleasant Invitational. Amy has improved slightly from her breakthrough freshman season. She’s due for some major PRs this fall and her spring season gave indication of that where she had a 22-second improvement on her 3K time and was nearly eight seconds faster in the 1,500m.
Amy has a best of 18:54.20 for the 5K distance, which she did to place 34th at the New England Championships last year. Amy has two very talented teammates – juniors Nichole Barger and Meaghan Scullin - that will push her in practice and during the dual-meet season in the very-competitive Northern Division. To make it back to the top seven like she did as a frosh, Amy will need to run a time in the low 18-minute range at Ponaganset’s covered-bridge trail. Her two classmates will certainly help in taking a chunk of time off her 5K.
<p> Countdown to 2014 cross-country season.</p>