Photos from Dylan Manning
With a lot of unknown with the 2020 cross country season athletes, parents and the RIIL were hopeful to get through a season of dual meets in hopes the RIIL Championship series could be run.
With the regular season going well, the RIIL proceeded with the three weeks of championship cross country action which started with the Freshman and JV State Championships yesterday at East Greenwich HS. Of course, it was a year that New England had snowfall at the end of October, so athletes would run over a partially snow-covered course on a cold Halloween day
Jason Padula (Smithfield) was able to outlast a group of talented Rhode Island freshman boys to win the 4000m event in 13:26, 21 seconds ahead of second-place m4000m (Barrington).
Heading into the event Padula ranked 2nd amongst Rhode Island Freshman boys in the standard distance, 5000m, with a season-best of 17:11.
Rhode Island Freshman Boys Rankings
Piedade and Bowen Healey (Narragansett) would fill out the top three spots running 13:47 and 13:58 respectively. The top 10 was very diverse with each runner coming from a different school across the state!
| FRESHMAN BOYS 4000 METER RUN FINALS | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PLACE | ATHLETE | TEAM | RESULT | POINTS | ||||
| 1 | Jason Padula | 9 | Smithfield High School | 13:26.66 | 1 | |||
| 2 | Brandon Piedade | 9 | Barrington High School | 13:47.55 | 2 | |||
| 3 | Bowen Healey | 9 | Narragansett High School | 13:58.69 | 0 | |||
| 4 | Will Olsen | 9 | Bishop Hendricken HS | 14:04.49 | 3 | |||
| 5 | Patrick McDonough | 9 | Cranston West HS | 14:13.71 | 4 | |||
| 6 | Eli Ziegler | 9 | Moses Brown School | 14:16.92 | 5 | |||
| 7 | Devin Richard | 9 | Burrillville High School | 14:22.27 | 0 | |||
| 8 | Ethan Fadden | 9 | Mount Saint Charles Academy | 14:23.05 | 0 | |||
| 9 | T.j. Blechman | 9 | South Kingstown High School | 14:25.03 | 0 | |||
| 10 | James Masterson | 9 | North Kingstown High School | 14:27.63 | 6 | |||
The boys freshman team battle came down to a close battle. Ponaganset would be the first team with 5 runners through and would have their 6th runner in the finish shoot before every other school. However, Bishop Hendricken were able to have their 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th runner finish ahead of Ponaganset's 1, 2, 3, 4 and were able to hold on for a 6 point title!
Bishop Hendricken Results
| 4000 METER RUN | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13:47.55 | Brandon Piedade | 2nd | Complete Results | |
| 16:06.00 | Ethan Baker | 34th | Complete Results | |
| 16:14.35 | Elliot Lefort | 35th | Complete Results | |
| 18:50.24 | Samuel Barber | 88th | Complete Results | |
| 20:41.06 | Taejo Chung-Break | 106th | Complete Results | |
The score between the two schools would end up at 71-77 with La Salle Academy finishing in 3rd place with 107 points.