Principe wins, as Rams dethrone Hawks

Grizzetti finishes second; Toll Gate's Pena paces Warwick girls

Kevin Pomeroy, Sports Editor
Posted 11/4/14

The Bishop Hendricken cross country team knew what it was up against heading into Sunday’s state championship meet at Ponaganset High School, and the Hawks weren’t dealt any surprises …

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Principe wins, as Rams dethrone Hawks

Grizzetti finishes second; Toll Gate's Pena paces Warwick girls

Posted

The Bishop Hendricken cross country team knew what it was up against heading into Sunday’s state championship meet at Ponaganset High School, and the Hawks weren’t dealt any surprises when the final results were tallied.

Hendricken finished in second place with 47 points, well behind state champion La Salle, which ended up with 25 points. The Rams were considered the top team in the state heading into the meet, and were ranked among the top teams in the country throughout the season in various polls.

They lived up to those expectations, as sophomore D.J. Principe won the individual championship and his Rams’ teammates Dan Paiva and Matt Bouthillette took third and fourth. La Salle also had runners finish in eighth, ninth, 10th and 11th place overall. 

For the Hawks, overcoming La Salle’s depth was just too much to do. Hendricken had won six consecutive state titles, but a seventh wasn’t in the cards.

Still, the Hawks were pleased with how they raced. Senior Tom Grizzetti led the way, running behind Principe to a second-place finish in a time of 15:51.21. Junior Dom Parlato broke into the top five as well, taking fifth.

“We were expecting to finish second,” said Hendricken head coach Jim Doyle. “These guys went out there, and the only way that we could possibly had finished first was to be aggressive. They were aggressive. That was our race plan.”

The championship for La Salle was its first since 1983.

Principe led wire-to-wire, winning the race by more than 14 seconds. While that was expected, Grizzetti’s performance wasn’t.

A First-Team All-State runner last season, Grizzetti figured to fall somewhere inside the top 10. Second, though, was a big-time showing on the state’s largest stage.

“I know we had some really good guys in front of us but I kept thinking, ‘These guys are great, and there’s a lot of hype surrounding them. But they’re just runners, just like me. I know I can keep up with them,’” Grizzetti said. “I just kept hoping in my head that my team was with me.”

His team wasn’t very far behind. Parlato was next across for the Hawks in fifth place with a time of 16:02.34, but by that time La Salle already had three runners done with the race. Cumberland’s Sean Laverty and East Greenwich’s Noah Barrero took sixth and seventh before La Salle clinched the championship with the next four runners across the line.

Hendricken’s third runner was junior Tom McMahon, who came in 12th place, followed by senior Wally Fitzhugh in 13th. Senior Michael Potter, the team’s traditional No. 1 runner, finished in 15th.

“Can we run better? Yeah, I think we can,” Doyle said. “But we followed the race plan exactly.”

Junior Avery Ingegneri finished in 46th place, while senior Grant Gauthier finished in 50th.

“Tom Grizzetti and Dom Parlato cracked into the top seven and made first-team All-State,” Doyle said. “We hoped to get Michael Potter up there, but that didn’t work out. Also Avery Ingegneri, but he’s been sick. So all in all, we had a good meet.”

The Hawks will be competing next at the New England championships this Saturday at Wickham Park in Manchester, Conn.

“I can’t be disappointed,” Doyle said. “We knew going in that they were a solid team. I’m very happy with what we accomplished. I would have never dreamed that we would have been able to crack their top five, and we did. I was very pleased with that.”

Toll Gate also competed as a team, with senior Evan Cummsikey coming across the finish line as the first Titan in 70th place. The team finished 14th with 366 points.

Junior Nick Mattiolli finished in 75th place, junior Nik Poulios was in 85th, junior Brad Meunier finished 93rd, freshman Nik Regadas came in 109th, freshman Nik Cehelasky finished in 123rd and senior Jared Paolino took 127th.

Pena leads Warwick girls

The top runner in the city of Warwick for the past few years kept that reputation on Sunday, as Toll Gate senior Erika Pena finished in 23rd at the girls’ state meet.

Pena completed the 3.1-mile race in 19:57.57.

Barrington junior Emma McMillan won the individual title for the third consecutive season, while La Salle completed a boy-girl sweep of the day with a first-place team showing. The Rams totaled 39 points, well ahead of second-place Barrington’s 95. Junior Karina Tavares was La Salle’s top finisher in second place, with junior Eliza Rego taking fourth.

Other Warwick finishers were Pilgrim sophomore Bryana Mullin in 37th, Pilgrim junior Danika Wayss in 43rd, Toll Gate freshman Sophia Maynard in 94th and Pilgrim sophomore Maranda Duffie in 96th.

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