Hawks Have Four Runners Make Top 10, Fall Short to Rival La Salle

by Darren Squillace

On a beautiful fall morning this past Saturday, October, 25th at Ponaganset High School, the Hawks' cross country team arrived and looked to take the Varsity Class A title. They'd be facing off against 13 other schools, including their main threat, rival La Salle Academy. At last year's event, the Hawks squeezed out a win over the rival Rams by just four points and were surely looking for some of that luck this time around as well. It was about 11:30 when the gun went off and the Hawks began the race to defend their title.

The Rams were without one of their top runners in junior Jack Salisbury, who clocked in at 15:57 in last year's race, but that did not seem to stop them from controlling much of the leaderboard from the beginning. The Hawks made pushes throughout the course to grab every possible top spot, refusing to give up on any sort of comeback. The Hawks top performers were junior Dom Parlatto (who finished in 5th), senior Tom Grizzetti, junior Avery Ingegneri, and senior Grant Gauthier, all of whom rounded out the #'s 8-10 spots. They would not be enough, however, as La Salle would take the title by 24 points.

On a positive note, the Junior Varsity Hawks decided to run with a vengeance. Senior Wally Fitzhugh won the JV race with a time of 16:50, and fellow senior Jack Rossi came in just behind him to finish second. Other top 10 runs were made by Jake Cardello, Jared Boulanger, and Max Waite. With these strong performances, the Hawks would go on to win the JV State Championship. The varsity Hawks will no doubt be out for blood when they get their shot at the Rams at the state championship meet, this Sunday November 2nd again at Ponaganset, when our guys will put their six consecutive state titles on the line.