The Mt. Hope High School cross country teams began their respective 2026 campaigns in recent weeks, the Huskies once again competing in the stern Metropolitan Division during the regular season and in Class B to begin the postseason.

They do so with an eye towards once more qualifying for the state meet to be held at its annual home of the Covered Bridge Trail on the campus of Ponaganset High.

The Huskies are operating under a bit of a different setup this fall with Neale Ross and Margaret McCaffrey combining the head coaching duties for both sides.

While it was previously a collaborative effort to an extent, Ross, with McCaffrey as his assistant, separately served as head coach of the boys' team and Sue Rancourt held the same role for the girls. Rancourt, however, has stepped aside from the position in 2026, McCaffrey formally being recognized as the girls' head coach for administrative purposes.

"Susan's been doing it for a long time. She did a great job," said Ross, some seven years into his second stint as a MHHS cross country coach. "And Margaret's awesome. She gets along great with the kids, so I think there's good continuity."

Ross and McCaffrey refer to their efforts as "co-coaching," each offering up instruction to the athletes on both teams.

Said Ross of the combined coaching process, "They all run together anyway. It works out pretty well. We all just support each other's program. We all go to same meets, so there's not much of a difference anyway."

McCaffrey's more direct presence with the girls has been a relatively smooth transition. She not only has a relationship with the runners from being around the group in previous years, but she is a Physical Education/Health teacher at MHHS as well.

"I know them. I'm a teacher in the district, so I know them," said McCaffrey. "But I think we're just making it a more cohesive program by bringing the boys and girls together. I think that's the benefit of running it as a co-ed program, more or less."

Both sides will be attempting to do more with a little less this fall. The number of participants are down slightly for each team, but that doesn't reflect the quality of the competitors.

"The boys are doing well this year. They're running really good. We have a lot of consistency from last year," Ross said of the boys' contingent. "We've got a lot of kids who returned. We have no seniors this year and our top guys are pretty much running similar times as they were at the end of last year, all between the high 18s, low 19s. So we're in good shape for the beginning of the season."

Last fall, the Huskies used one of the handful of routes available to teams attempting to run at state meet to qualify. Mt. Hope's fifth-place finish in the Class B Championships was good enough for the Huskies to earn a berth into states where they finished 18th.

This season, the roster is composed of seven juniors — Nathan James, Jacob Lopes, Alexander Deal, Dylan Scarborough, Adam Cobb, Rowan Mark and Owen Almeida — five sophomores — Ryan Waterman, Dylan Cirillo, Chase Aiksnoras, Maxwell Weldon and Dario Coletta— and one freshman — Liam Donovan. Lopes and Deal, the top two returnees from the 2025 state meet, are the team captains.

The MHHS girls' team, which also qualified for states last year via its fourth-place finish at class, runs this fall for the first time in four years minus standout Jessica Deal, who graduated last spring. She won the 2025 Class B individual race and placed 14th at states where she led the Huskies to a 13th-place result.

Seniors Kara Pisasale and Evelyn Towers head the list of returning runners for the girls. The duo, each of whom clocked scoring times at the 2025 state meet, serve as team captains. The roster is rounded out by classmates Kyleigh Durette and Ellie Donovan, sophomore Jourdan Cicchinelli, who also scored at states a year ago, along with freshmen Raegan McGinn and Abigail St. Pierre.

"We're small. We're tiny. But it's okay," McCaffrey said of the girls' grouping. "I think we'll do similar to what we did last year. We lost only a couple seniors. So I think we're in a similar position to what the boys are in; hoping to maybe qualify for the state meet as a team, but also have some individuals qualify for the state meet."

About both teams, Ross added, "At end of the year, states is really the goal. So hopefully we qualify both teams, and go from there. Have them peak in time for states."