Photos by Rich Dionne
Brynne Costa of East Providence runs with a group of LaSalle girls through a wooded loop at Haines Park in Barrington during a dual Cross Country Meet on Monday.
Townies Alex Eyster (middle) gets off to a good start.
The first to take to the 3.1-mile layout, the girls’ portion of the event went off without a hitch, LaSalle Academy, as expected, defeating the host Townies and Portsmouth. The Rams placed the top 13 runners to win each of the meets by the same 15-50 score. LaSalle sophomore Eliza Rego won the race in a time of 19 minutes flat.
Sophomore co-captains Brynne Costa and Angela Leonardo ran 15th and 18th, respectively, in times of 21:48 and 22:06 to pace East Providence. Junior Katie Lucier led the Patriots, running 14th overall in 21:47 for Portsmouth. The other scorers for the Townies were senior Emily St. Hilaire (31st, 23:34), sophomore Megan St. Hilaire (42nd, 25:40) and sophomore Sarah Botelho (43rd, 25:40).
“It was kind of what I expected, losing to LaSalle. I also knew Portsmouth would be a good team, but I thought the girls ran well,” said EPHS girls’ head coach Leslie Eastwood.
While the girls’ race ran relatively smoothly, the boys’ outing didn’t by a long stretch. At one point about a mile into the race, a host of runners, unfamiliar with the course having never run it before, took a wrong turn, eventually ending up in front of the lead pack for a period of time. The total number of boys to mistakenly turn was estimated to be about 30, coming from each of the four schools racing.
If the results stood, which wasn’t likely to be the case, LaSalle would have beaten East Providence and Portsmouth as well as St. Patrick’s of Providence. The Patriots also would have defeated the Townies.
However, after a long discussion between the coaches and the lead official overseeing the meet, it was tentatively agreed upon to nullify the results and rerun the meet at a later date, pending approval from the Rhode Island Interscholastic League cross country committee.
East Providence resident and LaSalle junior Jamie Placco finished the race first, running an unofficial time of 16:42. Senior Josh Letendre led the East Providence contingent, running eighth. Junior Mike Monagle was the second Townie to finish, running 14th.
Both East Providence outfits are scheduled to return to action Monday, Sept. 23, at Colt State Park in Bristol where the Townies will each face Mt. Hope and the girls will also take on neighboring Bay View. Meet time is 4 p.m.
