Redemption
Behind a new personal best
(16:20) from Mitchell Dailey, the Burrillville harriers took the Skee Carter
Invitational.
BURRILLVILLE — The Burrillville boys cross country team takes winning the Skee Carter Invitational seriously, so when Coventry came up to Burrillville Middle School last year and overcame the Broncos, it left a bad taste in the mouth of Mitchell Dailey and his teammates.
“Losing last year to Coventry was frustrating Dailey said. “The history of this race and the fact that this is our home invitational honoring coach Carter, we want to make someone who did so much for this town proud. To lose that was punch in the gut. In the second week of this season we had to
write down our goals for this season and me and a few guys wrote we really want to win the team title at Skee Carter.”
Dailey did his part Friday afternoon, as he became the third straight Broncos to win the individual title, completing the five-kilometer course in a personal best of 16 minutes, 22 seconds. Lincoln standout Nick Gaitanis finished second and then it was a race to see which Blackstone Valley squad would get their fifth runner to the finish line.
The Lions, who downed the Broncos in a dual meet and at the Maine Festival of Champions, saw Chris Lezon (17:17) finish fourth, but the Broncos had the next three runners – Dom Savastano, Lucas Raimond and Garrett Dailey – cross the finish line. Jake Trimble finished just behind Lincoln’s Michael Vito to secure the Broncos a 37-42 victory over the Lions to win their second Skee Carter Invitational title in the last three seasons.
“The boys did a phenomenal job today,” Burrillville coach Sam Stanton said. “Their goal was to win this and take the title back. The kids just went for it and worked really hard. The nice part about this group is the pack is really close and they really push each other. Mitchell is a little hard on them and his brother, but Garrett takes it well and let’s it roll off his back.”
There was a lot less drama on the girls side, but it proved to be an historic afternoon for Burrillville because talented freshman Haley Allen became the first Bronco girl to win the race and the Broncos, who placed five runners in the top 10, won the team title for the first time with a 29-78 victory over Cranston East. Woonsocket, thanks to Nicole Dioh’s second-place finish, was fifth.
“All of these girls are pretty much freshmen and sophomores and they work really, really hard,” said Stanton, who ran cross country at Burrillville along with her sister, Ponaganset coach Ariana Stanton. “They have goals and at the same time they have a lot of fun doing it. It had been a while since we’ve been in this position, to see us achieving our goals is huge.”
Allen was hoping to race against three-time meet champion South Kingstown, but because the meet was postponed a day due to Wednesday night’s storm, the Rebels had to drop out of the race. Instead, the Burrillville freshman grabbed the lead in the opening mile and slowly pulled away from a chasing pack that included Dioh, Cranston East’s Eden Fisher and Burrillville freshman Emily Allard (21:14).
Allen finished in a time of 20:45 to beat Dioh, a junior, by 10.6 seconds.
“I just tried to run as a fast as I can and keep that speed the entire time,” Allen said. “This is really exciting for everyone because we won this. If coach Carter was still around, he would be so happy to see this. For me, I’ve been running since I was two. This is all very exciting because in middle school we didn’t win big meets.”
Four of Burrillville’s top five finishers were freshmen, while sophomore Victoria LaMontagne finished ninth. Woonsocket freshman Brianlys Simono finished eighth in 21:41.
North Smithfield was led by junior Madison Tiner, who finished sixth in 21:17 after running in the Avenger Invitational earlier in the week.
Another Northmen who ran in East Greenwich, standout senior Nathan Masi, didn’t run Friday, which disappointed Dailey because the Bronco wanted another shot at the Northern Division’s top runner this season. Instead, Dailey dueled with Gaitanis for the third time this season. After cruising through the opening mile in 5:05, Dailey built a double-digit advantage before coming in at 16:20. Gaitanis finished in 16:37.
“For about the first mile and a half I could hear Nick behind me, so that was putting a fire under me and letting me know I have to go,” Dailey said. “The only motivator after that was this was my last home meet and I wanted to go out with a bang and make people proud. The goal was to go sub 16. The good thing about setting high goals is that even if I don’t hit them, I still did good.”
Davies senior Nick Croce finished 29th in a time of 19:02 to help the Patriots finish seventh, while Woonsocket’s Drew Paskanik was 14th in 17:56 to help the Villa Novans claim ninth place.
The Lions, who finished second to Cumberland in the Northern Division, will get another shot at the Broncos next Saturday in the Class championships at Ponaganset’s Covered Bridge Trail.
SKEE CARTER INVITATIONAL
at Burrillville Middle School
BOYS
Team results
1. Burrillville 37, 2. Lincoln 42, 3. Cranston West 111, 4. Cranston East 111, 5. Narragansett 152, 6. Exeter-West Greenwich 205, 7. Davies Tech 206, 8. Scituate 230, 9. Woonsocket 240, 10. North Smithfield 244.
Individual results
1. Mitchell Dailey, B, 16:20; 2. Nick Gaitanis, L, 16:37; 4. Chris Lezon, L, 17:17; 5. Dom Savastano, B, 17:18; 7. Lucas Raimond, B, 17:34; 8. Garrett Dailey, B, 17:36; 10. Ben Martino, L, 17:47; 11. Bryan Roy, L, 17:53; 14. Drew Paskanik, W, 17:56; 15. Michael Vito, L, 17:57; 16. Jacob Trimble, B, 18:10; 17. Seth Boulet, B, 18:12; 18. Pranjal Mathur, L, 18:18; 20. Collin Boisvert, B, 18:21; 25. Nathan Surmeian, L, 18:30; 27. Garrett Wilson, B, 18:42; 28. Austin Balon, L, 18:55; 29. Nick Croce, DT, 19:02.
GIRLS
Team scores
1. Burrillville 29, 2. Cranston East 78, 3. Narragansett 105, 4. Cranston West 119, 5. Woonsocket 127, 6. North Smithfield 131, 7. Ponaganset 164, 8. Scituate 190, 9. Mount St. Charles 219, 10. North Providence 236, 11. Davies Tech 330.
Individual results
1. Haley Allen, B, 20:45; 2. Nicole Dioh, W, 20:56;
4. Kaitlyn Potter, B, 21:07; 5. Emily Allard, B, 21:14;
6. Madison Tiner, NS, 21:17; 8. Brianlys Simono, W, 21:28; 9. Victoria LaMontagne, B, 21:41; 10. Madison Ludovici, B, 21:41; 13. Isabel Costa, B, 21:57;
17. Madeline LaSata, B, 22:45; 22. Nikki Felice, B, 23:22; 24. Abigail Ludovici, B, 23:22; 27. Abigail Menard, W, 23:35; 32. Kat Brandao, NS, 24:13.