PROVIDENCE — Thea Jackson is both a quick healer and the beneficiary of a second opinion. She's also a state champion...two times.

The Mt. Hope High School two-sport star, who about a month ago thought her 2025 spring season was over due to injury, returned to the fold Saturday, June 7, for the State Outdoor Track and Field Championship Meet at Brown Stadium to win two girls' individual titles.

In doing so, Jackson became the first Husky track and field athlete, female or male, to ever win a state title in the 33-year history of the school.

She captured the long jump with a near-record distance of 19 feet, 1 inch. Her best attempt was just an inch off the meet record and only 1.25 inches off the state mark. It also bettered her own school record.

Jackson joined just a handful of females to ever cover 19 feet or more in the event. The current Rhode Island record is 19'2.25" set by Hope's Pamela Hughes in 1985. She also set the state meet record that same year at 19'1.5."

Jackson added her other victory Sunday, June 8, in the high jump with a best of 5'4." The meet was completed the next day due to severe thunderstorms that struck Saturday afternoon.

And for good measure, she placed third on Day 2 of the meet in the 100 meters behind the star West Warwick sister duo of Lisa and Xenia Raye, who ran first and second, respectively, in 11.64 and 11.83. Jackson ran a 12.35.

Each of her efforts was all the more impressive considering where she was just a few weeks, with a boot on her foot and thinking about being ready for soccer in the fall.

A freak accident during the Huskies' final regular season Eastern Division dual meet in mid-May when she awkwardly tried to get off the mat while competing in the high jump left Jackson with what was known to be strained ligaments in her ankle, a small chip of her fibula (an "evulsion fracture," she explained) and likely a lengthy spell of rehabilitation.

Upon a second diagnosis, however, it was determined the situation wasn't as significant as originally thought, and Jackson could return to action as soon as she felt she could.

"So I'm like, all right, season over," Jackson said of the initial diagnosis. "But then I ended up being in such little pain. And so I was like, you know what, I want to get a second look. And so I went to the ankle specialist, not just the pediatric (doctor). And the ankle specialist told me this kind of fracture, we kind of just treat it like a sprain. And so I could compete based on that."

"That" happened in time to prep for states, and she made an emphatic re-entry to competition last weekend. Jackson almost immediately after the injury began to feel better when she took off the boot to sleep, shower and walk between rooms at home.

"I was like this does not hurt. And then I was just like, you know what, it's probably because it wasn't my jumping (plant) foot. So my mindset was as long as I can sprint, I can compete, and I can jump," Jackson added.

She would not have been cleared to play soccer if the same injury occurred during that season because the risk to being tackled or stepped on in the injured spot could lead to further damage.

But track was definitely back in play. Jackson said she continued to walk and weight train her upper body after the initial injury. The three weeks off, she added, may have been a benefit. But she only began real training in track and field just earlier this past week. Tuesday, June 3, to be precise.

"Tuesday and I did PT (physical therapy) on Saturday (May 31), and then I did three track practices, three sessions of PT," Jackson said of her workouts leading up to states. "I honestly was not expecting to do that well. But I think, honestly, like, the rest might have helped. I just wanted to do so well, so bad."

More states notes
The Huskies had a few other notable results from the state meet.

Before the delay, the Mt. Hope girls' 4x800-meter relay team of Kara Pisasale, Evelyn Towers, Sarah Bissonnette and Jessica Deal just missed out of the eight scoring positions, running ninth with a time of 10 minutes, 28 seconds. The time was a season-best for the group.

Pisasale and her fellow competitors in the girls' pole vault were also able to complete that event Saturday, the Huskies' sophomore placing seventh based on attempts at 9'6." She actually matched the height of  the fifth-place finisher, but did so on more tries.

Sunday, Deal, Mt. Hope's other outstanding junior, completed her stellar spring by bettering her own school record in the 1,500 meters as she placed second in 4:36.88. Her previous best was 4:51. Cumberland senior Kiley DeFusco won the event in 4:29.03.

"I'm ecstatic for Jessica," said MHHS head coach Renae Cicchinelli. "It makes me so happy to see her beaming at the finish. She ran it perfectly. She works so hard and it’s like it all came together at the perfect time."

Also, another the Huskies senior standouts, Lola Silva finished fifth in the long jump at 17'4." and seventh in the 300 hurdles in 49.65, breaking the 50-second mark in the process.

The combined performances of Jackson, Deal and the rest of the Mt. Hope female contingent led to a seventh-place finish as a team with 41.5 points.

Cumberland won the title with 69, followed by Raye sister-led West Warwick 64 and North Kingstown with 58. Barrington was fourth with 57, LaSalle fifth with 42.5 and Classical sixth with 42.

"This weekend is one I will remember and tell my future athletes," Cicchinelli added. "So much adversity, overcoming, and coming out on top in the end. It’s great to be on this side, it’s a great day to be a Husky."

JV states
Jackson Cicchinelli, disappointingly, came up just shy of qualifying to compete at varsity states in both the boys' 1,500 meters and the high jump, but the Mt. Hope junior could take some solace after placing among the top five finishers in both events at the 2025 State Junior Varsity Championships held Tuesday, June 3, at Bishop Hendricken in Warwick.

Cicchinelli scored the only points for the Huskies in the meet, nine, with his fourth-place time of 4:23.14 in the 1,500 and clearing the bar at 5'6" to wind up fifth in the high jump. He, Ryan Castillo, Jackson Lopes and Alex Watkinson also finished ninth, one spot out of medaling, in the 4x4 relay with a season-best time.

Barrington won the boys' team JV title 75 points. Rogers was second with 58 and Portsmouth third with 46. Cicchinelli's nine put Mt. Hope 23rd out of 33 entries.

Other standouts of the locals were Quentin Smith in the shot and hammer, throwing PRs in each. Castilo set individual marks in the 100 and 200.

And the 4x4 relay of Julia Pisasale, Jasmine Kenney, Ava Cabral and Evelyn Towers scored the only point for the Huskies in the girls' JV meet held at Coventry on June 2.

Freshmen states
Mt. Hope High athletes competed in the 2025 Freshmen State Meet Tuesday, May 27, in North Kingstown where Riley Hoffman accounted for the lone girls' point and only point scored on either the female or male side for the locals by running eighth in the 100 meter hurdles with a time of 20.49.

Though they did not place, the following freshmen Huskies recorded PRs during the competition: Julia Pisasale in the girls' 400, Ava Cabral in the girls' long jump, Rowen Mark in the boys' javelin, Adam Cobb in the boys' 1,500, Leo Eikenberg in the boys' triple jump, Luke Kutz in the boys' 200, Lucas Machado in the boys' shot put and Nathan James in the boys' 400.