Boys Cross Country Advances To New Englands, Girls Miss Out

On Sunday afternoon both the East Greenwich boys and girls cross country teams took to the RI State Championship starting line in Ponaganset with a season long goal – qualify for the New England Championship meet.

The boys team met their goal, while the girls team did not.

Coming off a disappointing Class meet, the boys team was highly motivated to perform better.  Austin Schaefer, EG's lead runner, did his part to catapult his team into a top six finish by a personal best course finish: 17:03.71.

Sophomore Chris Millman saw improvement from last week with a time of 17:51.28.  Harry Feigen ran another strong race: 17:59.08; followed by teammates Scott Kulm: 18:12.94; Alex Rickert: 18:19.84; Caleb Gladstone: 18:33.91; Ryan Millman: 18:49.24.

Going into the State meet the team knew they needed to run well to grab the sixth and final New England spot. At the awards ceremony, there was a loud applause from the back of Ponaganset's gymnasium when it was confirmed EG qualified to compete at the New England Championship meet.

At the start of the season, Coach Peter Dion and the team had goals to win Class and finish top six at States.  Although they didn't take home the Class title, they ran smart, they ran their last 300 meters much stronger than last week - what a difference a week can make.

Coach Dion was proud the team was able to keep the NE streak alive. This is the fifth consecutive trip to the New England Championship meet by the boys' Cross Country team.

In addition to the team qualifying for the NE Championship meet, Coach Dion was pleased with senior Austin Schaefer's performance.  He ran a smart race; he was in good position at the mile mark and finished strong, placing fifteenth and capturing All-State honors.

Sophomore Molly Anderson would cross the finish line first for East Greenwich with a time of 21:19.63.  Juniors Zai Ganesh: 22:07.37 and Kaeli O'Connell: 23:19.78 were the next EG finishers; followed by teammates, freshmen: Hannah Tighe: 23:38.90; Divya Mahadevan: 23:51.34; Kayla Olsen: 24:00.06; and sophomore Lauren Smith: 24:56.74.

Although the Lady Avengers were not making the trip to the New England Championship meet this season, Coach Dustin Coleman felt the girls' gave it their all.  Coach Coleman was not disappointed – we have a young team; there are no seniors, so everyone will be back next year.  There were three freshmen that had to step up to varsity this year – they have competed at the State meet and they are hungry to improve.

The New England Championship meet will be held Saturday, November 14 in Manchester, Conn.