The Mt. Hope High School cross country teams competed in their Class B Championship Meets Saturday, Oct. 26, over Ponaganset High's 3.1-mile/5,000-meter Covered Bridge Trail course, the Huskies finishing fourth and seventh, respectively, in the girls' and boys' races.

More importantly, both Mt. Hope sides earned one of the six available berths as a team through class into the 2024 Rhode Island Interscholastic League State Championship Meet back at the Covered Bridge Trail course Saturday, Nov. 2.

Twelve teams earned berths into states with their top-three finishes in the four divisions during the dual meet regular season. The next six-best teams from the three class meets earned the other spots.

All-Stater Jessica Deal was the top performer overall for the Huskies. The junior clocked a time of 20 minutes, 5.37 seconds to finish as the runner-up in the girls' race to Portsmouth's Allie Kaull. The Patriots' senior ran a 19:24.05.

Kara Pisasale was next in for the locals, running 15th overall in 22:07.35. Lucy O'Brien was 20th in 22:38. Evelyn Towers ran 22nd in 22:53.48. Lillian DaSilveira was the fifth and final scorer for the Huskies, running 31st in 23:29.67. Two other Mt. Hope runners competed in class with Sarah Bissonnette running 55th in 26:30.53 and Alyson Gomes running 66th in 27:15.78.

East Greenwich won the girls' Class B title with 27 points after placing all five of its scorers in the top nine finishers. Kaull and Portsmouth were second with 73 followed by South Kingstown with 75 and Mt. Hope with 90.

"It was perfect weather conditions for running, and I was very happy that these seven were able to accomplish their season-long goal of qualifying for states," MHHS girls' head coach Sue Rancourt said of the Huskies' effort at class. "It will be a fun week as we look towards states and hoping the girls all accomplish their individual running goals."

On the boys' side, Jackson Cicchinelli led Mt. Hope with his 24th-place run of 18:17.38. Andy Charest was 33rd in 18:53.06, Jacob Lopes 38th in 19:11.25, Gavin Stegall 41st in 19:13.69 40 and Tyler Scarborough 46th in 19:26.28. Also competing for Mt. Hope, Jackson Lopes finished 54th in 19:51.98 and Alexander Deal 58th in 20:26.33.

Sean Gray made it a solo sweep for Portsmouth as the Patriots' junior won the boys' race in 15:45.69. Barrington's Myles Napolitano was second in 16:01.26 with Luke Allen leading the victorious East Greenwich contingent in third at 16:14.76.

The Avengers made it a team sweep by taking the boys' competition with 32 points. EG's five scorers placed among the first 12 finishers. Barrington was second with 46 points, Portsmouth third with 58, Classical fourth with 136, Smithfield fifth with 145, Chariho sixth with 163 and the Huskies seventh with 178.

"On paper it's always tough for us because we're in a really tough division with La Salle, Portsmouth, Barrington and St. Ray's. They're really great teams," MHHS boys' head coach Neale Ross said, referring to the Huskies' competition in the Metropolitan Division and their ability to earn one of three automatic berths into states during the regular season.

He continued, "And we have a really good team. Our guys worked hard all season, so it was good to see them achieve this goal of reaching states...We just want to do better this week than we did last week, keep improving every time we go out there."

JV class
Mt. Hope athletes also vied in the junior varsity class event Saturday. Shepherd Butler of Bishop Hendricken won 16:55.47. The Hawks also won the team title with 31 points. Barrington was second with 51 and North Kingstown third with 55.

Dylan Shaw ran a 20:49.07 to lead the Huskies in 101st place overall as Mt. Hope finished 13th out of 22 teams. Rowan Field was 115th in 21:18.78, Adam Cobb was 118th in 21:21.13, Dylan Scarborough was 133rd in 21:41.02 and Owen Almeida was 136th in 21:43.01. William Southworth ran a 22:54.80 Nathan James a 24:31.56 to round up the Mt. Hope competitors.

Freshmen states
The RIIL Freshmen Cross Country State Championship Meet took place Monday, Oct. 21, over a 2.5-mile/4,000-meter circuit at Deerfield Park in Smithfield.

Hendricken's Oliver Redmond won the boys' race in 13:29.91 and his Hawks were the team champs with 26 points. North Kingstown was second with 38 and Classical third with 144.

Mt. Hope was 14th as a team led Jacob Lopes in 35th with a time of 15:33.08. Deal ran 81st in 16:42.85. Almeida was 112th in 17:50.14, Cobb was 113th in 17:57.03, James ran 147th in 20:08.28 and Scarborough was 148th in 20:08.98.

Cumberland's Cecelia Ludwig won the girls' race in 15:22.0 while La Salle won the team title with 33 points. Chloe Questral was the lone Mt. Hope runner in the field, finishing 74th overall out of 92 runners with a time of 23:59.42.