Clippers ahead of the pack
Cumberland boys, girls win Northern dual meet
Cumberland cross country runners looking strong
CUMBERLAND – The first loop of the cross-country course at The Monastery remains the same. So too does the third loop.
Thanks to some pesky beavers who over the summer did enough damage to flood the wood-covered second loop, some subtle changes were made to the venerable 3.1-mile course head of Tuesday’s Northern Division opener. There’s now an extra loop that the runners must navigate prior to crossing the finish line, which was relocated on the other side of the gazebo.
Bottom line? The objective remains to conquer the layout, which is exactly what Burrillville junior Andrew McClure and Cumberland sophomore Adah Anderson did en route to finishing ahead of the field in their respective meets.
Factoring in the Indian Summer weather, McClure and Anderson utilized a similar strategy that proved to work – a solid start out of the chute but nothing too taxing that it didn’t sap them when the time came to make one final push.
McClure’s winning time was 17 minutes, 36 seconds – a full 13 seconds ahead the runner-up male finisher, Cumberland junior Dan Collard.
“It was so hot so I thought it was important for someone else to do the hard work until the last mile before taking it,” McClure said.
“He’s smart and wanted to pace himself before going for it,” BHS head coach Samantha Stanton said.
McClure was a dependable scorer for the Broncos last year. Now he’s being asked to stay at the front of the pack and anchor a squad that’s noticeably deeper both in terms of overall numbers and top talent. Burrillville placed four runners in the top-10 with Tom Ames (fourth, 18:07), Cam Charron (fifth, 18:16), and Mitchell Daily (eighth, 18:57) playing a vital hand in a near-win over the division’s perennial power, Cumberland.
The Clippers wound up edging the Broncos, 27-33. on the strength of placing five among the first 10 finishers.
“They’re a hard-working bunch and that’s the most important thing,” Stanton said, noting that she has 33 boys in the fold. “The majority of them really love it and that bodes well for the future of the pro- gram.”
The Cumberland boys ended up sweeping Tuesday’s meet with convincing wins over North Smithfield (15-48) and Woonsocket (15-50). Collard set his team’s pace followed by junior Nate Rogers ( third, 18:03), freshman Owen Molis (sixth, 18:24), and Mike Swerdlow (seventh, 18:38), and Brendan Johnson (ninth, 19:02).
“We’re young and developing. There’s a couple of freshmen who are promising,” said long-time CHS head coach Tom Kenwood, who is entering his final season at the cross-country helm.
Anderson’s first varsity win saw the 10th grader work in tandem with teammate and senior Grace Henson before making a hard charge at the very end. Anderson finished with a time of 20 minutes, 20 seconds while Henson clocked in at 20:10.
“I was on a pace to finish at 20:30, but I felt good going into that last mile so we picked it up a little and pulled away,” Anderson said.
Finishing right on Henson’s heels was CHS freshman Bailee Brown, who came in third (20:21). Brown was joined by fellow ninth graders Olivia Bolt (fourth, 20:35) and Lizzie Pickering ( sixth, 21:54).
“All three of them have been running with us,” Anderson noted. “They’re great and definitely going to be a great asset to our team. Hopefully they can help us at the state meet and other big meets.”
Added CHS coach Nessa Malloy, “There have been plenty of pleasant surprises, but that also points to a good future.”
Cumberland produced nine of the first 10 finishers. Burrillville’s Sabrina Charron prevented a clean sweep (fifth, 21:40). Just like their male counterparts, the CHS girls made it a clean sweep with wins over Burrillville (16-47), North Smithfield (15-50), and Woonsocket (15-50).