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
Sheridan Wilbur, senior, La Salle Academy
Sheridan had an interesting junior campaign. A nagging hip injury kept her away from the cross-country trails for most of the fall, but despite not being 100 percent she came back for the class and state championships with a pair of sub 19-minute performances to help guide the Rams to respective crowns in those two major meets.
With the hip injury not completely healed, Sheridan skipped the entire indoor season but came back strong on for outdoor track and concluded it with a runner-up finish in the 3,000-meter run at the state meet with a solid 10:14.99 clocking.
The good news is Sheridan is completely healthy for her final season of cross country. That could be bad news for her competition. As she proved last year, the La Salle standout has the talent and, more importantly, the inner drive to succeed at a high level when she steps on the line. She was fifth at both the class and state meets and had a season 5K best of 18:42.71. Sheridan’s fastest time for the 3.1-mile distance is 18:31.44, which she did in 2012 to place second as a sophomore at the states.
A healthy Sheridan has potential to run in the mid 17-minute range on Ponaganset’s wooded trails, a time that would be needed to earn prosperity with the level of competition that the state has produced. The word is that Sheridan is in great shape right now and ready to finish off her final season of X-C on a high note.
La Salle lost just two varsity runners from last year’s state championship squad and is predicted to easily defend its crown. Two of Sheridan’s teammates, juniors Eliza Rego and Karina Tavares (third at the 2013 state meet), have potential for a top-three finish. In other words, it’s not beyond the realm of possibility that the Rams could go 1-2-3 at the state level. It’s also not too far-fetched that Sheridan could be the leader of that trio.
<p> Countdown to 2014 cross-country season.</p>