BRISTOL — On as a picturesque an early fall afternoon as is likely at Bristol Town Beach Monday, Sept. 30, the Mt. Hope High School cross country teams completed their 2024 Metropolitan Division dual meet schedules by hosting Portsmouth, St. Raphael and Providence Country Day.

The Huskies swept their opposition on the girls' side and finished their Metro slate with a 8-3 record, which matched a program best, after they shut out both St. Ray's and PCD by the same 15-50 scores and beat the Patriots 20-35.

The Mt. Hope boys dropped two of their three outings to complete their Metro duals with a 3-5-1 record. The Huskies lost to Portsmouth 15-40 and to the Saints 15-47, but beat PCD 24-37.

More girls' notes
Jessica Deal continued her terrific form for the Mt. Hope girls last week, clocking a time of 20 minutes, 11.5 seconds on the 3.1-mile Town Beach layout to lead the locals and finish second overall.

MacKenzie Lickert, of St. Ray's, was the female race winner in 19:54.4. She held a steady lead over Deal throughout the two-loop circuit.

Kara Pisale was next in both overall and for the Huskies, running third at 21:48. Elini Drosinos was tops for Portsmouth and fourth overall in 21:48. Mt. Hope senior Lucy O'Brien was fifth in 22:04.

The Huskies final two scoring runners placed seventh and eighth, respectively, as Evelyn Towers ran a 23:46 and Lily DaSilveira a 23:47.

"I thought the girls ran great. We had a bunch of PRs (personal records)," MHHS girls head coach Sue Rancourt of last week's Metro finale.

Sophomores Pisale and Towers along with junior DaSilveira, who actually ran a half-marathon just two days prior to the meet, each trimmed time off their best to date this fall at the Metro finale as did freshman Chloe Questel, who took three minutes off her top time so far this season.

As for the team in total, Deal has paced the locals in each of their regular season contests, Rancourt saying of her top runner, "She's run really well. The best way I can put it about Jessica is that she's done everything we needed her to do in these first four dual meets. She scored the points we needed her to score."

The Huskies, whose only losses came to the three teams above them in the Metro standings, (LaSalle, Barrington and Moses Brown), equaled the team's best dual meet mark of 8-3 set initially in 2022.

Mt. Hope just missed out on earning an automatic bid into the state meet Saturday, Nov. 2, at Ponaganset's Covered Bridge Trail. Those spots went to the aforementioned Rams, Eagles and Quakers. The three teams in each of the Interscholastic League's four divisions after duals earn spots directly to states.

The Huskies can still punch their ticket to states as a group by being among the top two teams to place at the Class B Championships who haven't yet already made it to states. The class meet is also at Ponaganset's Covered Bridge Trail on Saturday, Oct. 26.

That's how Mt. Hope made it last year with its sixth-place result at class. Barrington, East Greenwich, Portsmouth, South Kingstown and Lincoln had made their way to states by virtue of their earlier dual meet finishes.

This fall, Barrington has been bumped up to Class A as part of realignment, which takes away one top team from the B ranks, and Rancourt feels the Huskies are an even better lot than they were a year ago.

"I'm curious to see who some of the teams are because we don't race against them during the regular season," Rancourt said of the Class B meet.

She continued, "But I do feel pretty confident that we can finish top three at class, which would also be our best-ever finish. If we're ever going to do it, this is the year to finish two three at class with this group we have."

The Huskies were set to enjoy a brief respite before beginning their preparations for the championship meets. That prep includes participating in the East Bay Invitational Thursday, Oct. 17, hosted by Portsmouth at The Glen Park.

"We're going to dial the intensity back a bit, take a little bit of a rest the next week or so. Then we'll start to ramp back up for the championship meets," Rancourt added.

More boys' notes
As was the case in previous Metro duals for the Mt. Hope boys, junior Jackson Cicchinelli led the locals last Monday by running 12th overall in 19:02.

Portsmouth's Sean Gray dominated the competition, clocking an overall winning time of 16:53. Noah Van Horn of St. Ray's was a distant second in 17:51.

Huskies' junior Andy Charest was next to finish for the locals, running 15th in 19:29. Classmate Jackson Lopes was 17th in 19:50.

Mt. Hope runners, two of which counted towards the team score, finished in placed 20-22. Junior Gavin Stegall ran a 20:06.4, classmate Tyler Scarborough a 20:06.8 and freshman Jacob Lopes a 20:18.

"All things considered I thought the guys did great," said MHHS boys' coach Neale Ross, who considers new aide Margaret McCaffrey his "co-coach." Of McCaffrey, Ross continued, "She's an awesome runner, an awesome addition to our team. She a phenomenal cross country coach."

Back to this year's squad, Ross said, "They've been doing well all season. Their times have been coming down. Obviously, we're at the end of the regular season and they're a bit tired, but they've persevered and done really well."

Like their female counterparts, the boys intended to take a short breather before beginning to increase their training in anticipation of the championship meets. The MHHS boys are also in Class B and will need to finish as one of the top teams at class not having already qualified for states to make it to the title meet.

"We're really focused on qualifying as a team," Ross said of states. "But we also have a lot of guys teetering on the verge of the 19 minute mark. We're definitely going to need the guys to push themselves, work really hard over the next couple of weeks if we want to make it."

Cicchinelli appears likely to earn a berth at states individually. Charest, Scarborough and Stegall are also within range. Again, though, the Huskies' collective aim is to get there as a group, which is something that hasn't happened in a while according to their coach.

"I definitely think we can do it. Our top seven have the ability to do so for sure," Ross said.

The boys will also join the girls in running the East Bay Invite in Portsmouth where Ross is eager to see his athletes compete against quality opposition like the host Patriots and a few others.

"It's another week when we can push ourselves and try to beat our previous times," Ross added. "It's all about our guys running like every single race, even the invitationals, is like qualifying for states or actually running states. That's the kind of of effort they need to give."