By Michael Letendre

BRISTOL – Even an injury couldn’t slow down Bristol Central cross country standout Frankie Porrini at the annual Bristol city series cross country meet on Thursday.

Nearly forty-five competitors took part of the race from the newly minted Johnie Floyd Memorial Cross Country Course at Dewitt Page Park and no one could top Porrini from start to finish.

The junior won the race in 18:21 while Eastern’s Logan Crowley – staying within arm’s distance of the eventual victor – nabbed second place (18:39).

On the team front, Central won the event for the 17th straight season – earning the city series title one more time.

“I’m even impressed,’ said Central coach Tamara Stafford-Kirk of the victory. “This year, it’s been a tough year for everybody coming back from COVID.”  

And while the city series event did not take place last season due to the pandemic, nothing changed in terms of Central’s dominance.

Central won the city series bout in 2019, defeating both Eastern and St. Paul Catholic by identical 15-50 scores from Rockwell Park.

Porrini came in fourth place at the event (18:14) as a freshman and when he crossed the finish line first on Thursday, it was the 17th straight year a runner from BC won the race.

The Rams ended up 26-31 winners against the Lancers while Central scored a 21-40 victory versus a very good St. Paul Catholic program.

Eastern also defeated the Falcons, 22-35, but the day belonged to the Rams once again.

“I think I had fourteen boys race today,” said Stafford. “The team numbers are low so we were a little worried about what we would do in the middle there. We know Frankie’s strong, even on a little bit of a sore knee. Chris Roy’s been running well and then we just have a bunch of guys who have been kind of dicing it up for us in [the] three, four, five six through eight and nine [positions].”

There was a good mix of runners from all three schools to start the race and as the competitors were running away from the Page Park pool, the large group broke up into smaller packs.

Porrini and teammate Chris Roy were in front, Eastern’s Logan Crowley and Dominic Tartarelli were in the group, along with the Falcons’ Colin Reilly and Matt Doherty.

But quickly, coming down the hill going back towards the pool, it was Porrini, Crowley, and Roy who broke away.

One of those three competitors was going home that evening as the 2021 Bristol city series champion.

“[Logan] said on the first loop [that] Chris really pushed him hard,” said Eastern coach Kyle Fuller. “Logan was able to take off during that second loop to [eventually] beat Chris by ten seconds.”

Roy was leading Crowley at that point of the race while a good mix of runners were just behind with Central’s Lance Archibald and Eastern’s Dante Marciano and Aidan Tartarelli also within reach.

After a trip past the ski lodge, around the edge of the park and down the hill towards the pool building once again, Porrini was all alone with Crowley about 15-20 seconds behind.

Roy was just trailing Crowley and Reilly was tagging along with Dominic Tartarelli in tow.

After going down the big hill in front of the pool and sprinting around the tennis courts at the tail-end of the event, Porrini charged up the hill to the finish line for his first ever city series victory. 

“This course is a weird course,” said Porrini. “It’s either uphill or downhill, so definitely on the downhill parts, I was cruising. But other than that, I felt good on the finish. Coming through on the finish felt good.”

Crowley did all he could to keep Porrini in sight and did an outstanding job with his time of 18:39.

After Crowley crossed the finish line, Roy took third place in 18:49 while Reilly eventually earned fourth (19:23). 

“Logan’s been running strong this year,” said Fuller. “We knew going in Frankie was the man. After that first loop, we knew Frankie was kind of taking it easy. He had that leg injury, you could see it all taped up. We knew it would be a good, solid race but Chris Roy was really giving Logan a run for his money.”

“Chris has really come on great [over] the second half of the season…I’m really happy for Chris. He’s such a great kid.”

Dominic Tartarelli (5th, 19:33) and Doherty (6th, 19:53) eventually crossed the line while Archibald, battling up from ninth place, nabbed seventh in an impressive 20:14. 

“He’s been having a good year,” said Stafford-Kirk of Archibald. “We’re battling consistency with Lance and him gaining his confidence but he’s gaining it more and more and there’s a point in the race coming down the hill where he had two Eastern guys in front of him. And that would have changed the score a lot.”

“And he just took it from there, kind of passing [the runners] down the hill and had a really string finish to out-kick them. He was big for us today for sure.”

Rounding out the top-10 were Eastern’s Dante Marciano (8th, 20:21) and Aidan Tartarelli (9th, 20:22) along with Central’s Ryan Sarmiento (10th, 20:44). 

“Dante and Aidan Tartarelli ran well,” said Fuller. “Dom was right where I’d thought [he’d be]. Freshman Aiden Gezelman (14th place, 21:57) stepped up today and had a better race. He had a birthday last week and just turned 14. So he’s racing kids four years older than him and he’s a young teenager racing, basically, a handful of young adults.”

“He really held his own today for a freshmen boy.”

Eastern and St. Paul Catholic were both right there in the end and had a position or two changed on the course, that outcome could have swung in another program’s favor.

But in the end, it was Central holding up the city series championship trophy. 

“We were a little nervous coming in but I think it was good,” said Stafford-Kirk. “I think it’s good for the boys to have that competition, coming in and running a little scared. We lost to a couple teams this year we don’t normally lose to so I’m sure Eastern was licking their chops thinking, ‘okay, this might be the year.’”

“So I’m really proud of the boys for holding them off and running well today.”

And the victor of the race certainly enjoyed keeping Central’s winning streak intact in the city series action.  

“It’s definitely cool,” said Porrini of Central’s winning streak. “It feels good.”

Boys City Series Cross Country – Thursday, October 14 

BRISTOL CENTRAL 26, BRISTOL EASTERN 31

BRISTOL CENTRAL 21, ST. PAUL CATHOLIC 40

BRISTOL EASTERN 22, ST. PAUL CATHOLIC 35

from Johnie Floyd Memorial Cross Country Course at Page Park – 3.1 Miles 

Individual Results – Top 25

City Series Champion – Frankie Porrini (Bristol Central), 18:21  

Runner-up – Logan Crowley (Bristol Eastern), 18:39 

3. Christopher Roy (Bristol Central), 18:49 

4. Colin Reilly (St. Paul Catholic), 19:23 

5. Dominic Tartarelli (Bristol Eastern), 19:33 

6. Matt Doherty (St. Paul Catholic), 19:53 

7. Lance Archibald (Bristol Central), 20:14 

8. Dante Marciano (Bristol Eastern), 20:21 

9. Aidan Tartarelli (Bristol Eastern), 20:22

10. Ryan Sarmiento (Bristol Central), 20:44 

11. Josh Poulin (Bristol Central), 20:52 

12. Braydan Dwyer (Bristol Central), 21:25 

13. Patrick Wininger (Bristol Central), 21:33 

14. Aidan Gezelman (Bristol Eastern), 21:57 

15. Aiden Conklin (St. Paul Catholic), 22:06 

16. Robert Roach (St. Paul Catholic), 22:21 

17. Scott Petrosky (Bristol Central), 22:37 

18. Jude Browning (Bristol Central), 22:37

19. Emil Berube (Bristol Central), 22:53 

20. Jack Mulcunry (Bristol Eastern), 23:11 

21. Peyton Hasler (Bristol Eastern), 23:23 

22. Ben Kozikowski (Bristol Eastern), 23:46 

23. Luca Alves (Bristol Central), 23:56

24. Tyler Wilson (Bristol Central), 24:00 

25. Dylan Prince (Bristol Eastern), 24:03