Newcomer Andrew Springer raced to another record. Jenna Riley, Bishop Hendricken boys, LaSalle Academy girls also claim crowns.
NORTH SCITUATE -- It was a spectacular day for the high school runners who toed the line for the Rhode Island State Cross Championships at Ponaganset High School.
Andrew Springer (Right, Mary Murphy photo), the senior from Westerly High School, set a new course record on the Covered Bridge Trail, breezing through the difficult 3.1 mile in 15:14; while Jenna Riley, a senior from Coventry High School, fought off two competitors to win the girl's race in 18:38.
In the team competition, Bishop Hendricken High School upset LaSalle Academy for the second straight week and won the boys championship 88-106. In the girl's race, LaSalle Academy, with three freshmen in their top seven, upset Barrington High School, 69-85, to capture the state title.
It was the second consecutive championship for the LaSalle girls.
LaSalle, Barrington and East Greenwich were the only teams from Rhode Island to have their girls and boys teams advance to the New England championships next Saturday in Manchester, NH. The Barrington boys finished third, just three points behind LaSalle and three points ahead of South Kingstown High School, last weekend's Class B champions. The East Greenwich girls were fourth, while the boys were sixth. The top six teams advance to the New Englands.
Springer, a former soccer player running cross country for the first time, got off to a quick start in the boy's race with Mark Feigen, a senior from East Greenwich; and Tim O'Loughlin, also a senior from Westerly, keeping pace with him. But shortly after the group disappeared into the woods, Springer took over the race. The crowd of more than 2,000 spectators broke into a roar as the Springer emerged on through a line of trees on the crushed stone course with a 40-second lead. He continued to hammer through the woods and exploded on to the grassy field with a commanding lead and it was clear that he was gunning for a course record.
Springer, who is being recruited by Stanford, Duke and Villanova, among others, broke the course record of 15:29 that was set by Donn Cabral, of Glastonbury (Conn) High School in the New England XC Championships in 2006. Cabral is a freshman at Princeton. He was followed by Feigen in 15:42.16 and O'Loughlin in 15:52.59. The other boy cracking 16 minutes was senior Connor Mercurio, of LaSalle, who clocked a 15:56.91.
Afterward, at the awards ceremony, Springer was asked whether his coach, Ryan Palmer, talked to him about a strategy going into the race.
``We didn't talk too much about strategy,'' Springer said. ``He just told us to run really fast.''
The crowd erupted in laughter.
Jim Doyle, the longtime coach at Bishop Hendricken, is no stranger to state championships, but he was thrilled to be the underdog and come out on top. He has a young team and six of seven boys return next year.
``It felt great,'' Doyle said. ``We weren't expected to win.''
In the girl's race, Riley (Left, Mary Murphy photo)held off Allie Stasiuk, a senior from North Kingstown; and Emily Siskind, a junior from Barrington, to capture the state title. Stasiuk was second, less than three seconds behind Riley with a time of 18:40.63; and Siskind, a former soccer player running cross country for the first time, was third in 18:44.70.
Jean Christensen, a LaSalle senior, and former state champion, was fourth, in 18:59.
Riley, who finished 24th last year and battled a series of injuries, was pleased with her performance.
``It was a tough race,'' she said. ``I felt great. It's an amazing feeling.''
Kelly Martin, LaSalle's head coach, seemed relieved to beat Barrington,who had been ranked first in the state for the past three months. In recent months, three freshmen moved up to the varsity and two of them, Emily Papazian, 8th, in 19:36; and Molly Keating, 12th, in 19:49.1, were the 2nd and 3rd scorers for the team.
``We were jut hoping we could do it,'' Martin said. ``They worked really hard this whole season. We knew Barrington was going to be really tough.''
LaSalle's top five runners averaged 19:47.22, while Barrington's top five averaged 19:54.34, two of the top times in New England this fall. They will face each other next weekend. Barrington returns it's top five starters next season.