Emily Kane, La Salle Academy
The Ram junior was sixth at the State Meet as a ninth-grader and fourth last year. We're expecting that downward trend to continue this fall.
As we stated with teammate Grace Connolly, Kane has the benefit of training with a team that has a chance to win it all. In addition to her placement at the states, Kane was the third Rhode Islander at the New England Championships where she ran a 5,000m best of 18:38 at Ponaganset. She is not afraid to run with the lead pack, something she demonstrated often during the 2016-17 season.
Kane has certainly shown she has range with quality times in events ranging from 600 meters to 5K. She capped off her sophomore year in June by taking runner-up honors to Portsmouth's Nikki Merrill in the 1,500-meter run with a personal best of 4:31.94, just a week after taking second to Merrill at the Mount Pleasant Invitational with a more than seven-second best of 4:33.10.
Those two races alone should provide extra motivation to Kane and her chance to excel with the best in the state this season. It appears it's going to be crowded up front with a number of runners capable of taking those top-3 positions at the State Meet in November. Count on Kane being among that bunch.