EAST PROVIDENCE — The East Providence High School boys' and girls' cross country teams had their 2023 Metropolitan Division debuts delayed earlier this week when heavy downpours washed away the Townies date in Tiverton for meet the host Tigers, the Lincoln School, Moses Brown and the two Pawtucket outfits Tolman and Shea.

The meet has yet to be rescheduled. East Providence is once again scheduled to travel to Tiverton Monday, Sept. 18, where the local outfits are both set to run against LaSalle and Portsmouth.

The EPHS boys are coming off a 3-6 season in Metro meets a year ago and 10th-place in the Class A Championships . The Townies did not qualify any individuals or as a team for the state meet held annually at Ponaganset High’s 3.1-mile Covered Bridge Trail course.

How East Providence fares this fall is an open question. While the Townies have superb numbers — some 27 athletes have been participating so far — a couple of their top performers from a year ago opted not to return to team, but also affords those who did come and others new to the program an opportunity to make some noise.

"The boys have been working hard," said boys' head coach Bob Lyons. "We had good attendance at the 'getting together to run' practices over the summer, but the numbers increased greatly once the school year started. We have 27 young men currently on the team eligibility list, which is the largest I've had since taking over the program and one of the largest anyone can ever remember the team having."

Sophomore Roger Beaudet is East Providence's lead returning runner. He paced the Townies during most of the 2022 regular season and at the Class A Championships, where he ran 40th overall in a time of 18 minutes, 57.9 seconds.

Junior Will Anthony is another key returnee. He ran 65th in 21:53 at the Class A meet a year ago and led the Townies a couple weeks back at the traditional Injury Fund Carnival preseason outing held at Smithfield's Deerfield Park where he clocked a 20:01.

Two seniors are on the roster, Brayden Rouette and Simon Palombo, serve as team captains. Lyons was quick to praise both for the leadership they've already shown so far. Besides running, Rouette is among the better players on the boys' tennis team in the spring and Palombo is a key contributor to the wrestling team in the winter.

Classmates Deacon McShane, Gabriel Santos and Kaden Pires join Anthony in the cast of juniors on the squad. Julius Cortes, Owen Dimeo and Daniel Lukusa are sophomores.

Freshmen make up the bulk of the boys' roster led Gerald Gagnon who followed Anthony as the second Townie to finish in the varsity Injury Fund outing two weeks ago in Smithfield. Also of note, Giuseppe Belanger was the top EPHS runner in the freshmen 4K portion of the Injury Fund.

The rest of the newcomers include Jason Brown, Rasika Buchta, Ty Bulzacchelli, Travis Carlucci, James Cassamas, Jayden Caverio, Max Correiro, Kingston Ferreira, Josh Francis, Daniel Gwozdz, Aubrey Mitsch, Ethan Perreira, Ben Sousa and Tristan Tysvaer.

Anthony, Gagnon, Rouette, Palombo, Cortez, Lukusa and McShane have clocked the top seven times overall to date for the Townies.

"I've been extremely pleased with the leadership of our team captains Simon and Brayden," said Lyons. "I've also been pleased with the number of underclassmen on the team, particularly the high number of freshmen on our roster, which bodes well for the future. It's early in the season, so we are still in the process of determining our top seven runners for upcoming major meets and invitationals, but I expect a lot of these freshmen will be in the mix for those spots."

Traditionally stacked with talent, the Metro Division in which East Providence competes, contains perennial powers like LaSalle, Barrington, St. Raphael and Portsmouth. The regular season dual meets should be a worthy proving ground for the Townies as they seek to make some noise at the championship level events.

"The goals for the team this year are to complete the dual meet portion of our season with a winning record and qualify as a team or individuals at lease for the state meet. As is always the case, the realistic goal for all of the kids is to improve upon their times each and every meet," Lyons concluded.

He added, "I'm looking forward to seeing the improvement these young men make. I challenged them at the start of the year to bring the program back to relevancy and respectability on the state level, and thus far they are working hard to do so."

The EPHS girls, meanwhile, are coming off a season when they didn't have enough competitors to even qualify to record scores in a regular season contest, never mind at the championship level meets.

Junior Maggie Robinson, who quite literally "doubles" as a member of the EPHS girls' tennis team in the fall, the EPHS girls' harriers. She led the Townies in their Injury Fund outing. Abigail Beatrice and Sadie Gagnon paced the locals in the freshmen 4K race. Robinson pairs with Tiana Brierly to form the No. 2 doubles tandem on the tennis squad.

Jayla DaGraca is the lone soph on the cross country club. And like the boys, freshmen make up the majority of the 2023 East Providence girls' roster including Sophie Elmera, Lia Evans, Natasha Fontaine, Aurora Hofstetter, Anumithra Jadadeesh Madhumathi, Kathryn Patalano, Rachel Rajarantnma and Olivia Saint-Aubin.

Said girls' head coach Pati Piros of her group this fall, "We have a young team who are willing to put in the work to run their personal bests along with bringing the team to advance in the league. They work together as a group and are motivated. They will be a team to watch for. Maggie is the captain. She's already improved her time since last year and is working hard towards her goal."

Among the Townies to medal at the Injury Fund carnival in the freshmen and varsity races were (left to right) Tristan Tysvaer, Jayden Caverio, Sadie Gagnon, Abigail Beatrice and Maggie Robinson.