Rhode Island Senior And 2021 Olympic Trials Participant Checked Off A Goal By Winning State Cross Country Title, But She'll Skip Postseason

By Mary Albl of DyeStat 

Photo courtesy Ocean State Running

Three years ago in her first varsity cross country season at Moses Brown in Rhode Island, Sophia Gorriaran made it a goal to become a state champion in the sport. Well known for her dominant, speedy performances on the track, Gorriaran put in the work to extend her range to include the trails.

On Nov. 5 in her final prep cross country race, the goal she set as a sophomore finally came to fruition.

At the Rhode Island Interscholastic League Championships at Ponaganset High, Gorriaran used her strength and speed to cover the 5-kilometer course in 18 minutes, 18.2 seconds and win the state crown by more than 40 seconds.  

“It meant a lot,” Gorriaran said. “It was a big goal for me going into cross country as a sophomore (and) I knew it would be tough since there were a lot of good competitors like Reese (Fahys), Rylee (Shunney), Caroline Cummings, and all those people; I definitely had some tough competition throughout the years, so to finally achieve my goal on top as a senior was super exciting.”

Coming off an historic junior track season where she broke the outdoor national high school record in the 600 at the Penn Relays (1:25.22) and also lowered her World Under-18 all-time mark in the indoor 800 to 2:00.58, the focus for Gorriaran’s cross country season was on training. She had the benefit of individuals to run with and push her in the summer, something she didn't have before. 

“I think this year my training went a lot better,” she said. “I thought I got a lot stronger this season, and having training partners, people to run with was a big thing to help push me in my workouts, and just getting used to running with people again.”

Gorriaran, who is no stranger to professional competition, was the youngest athlete to compete in the 2021 U.S. Olympic Trials women’s 800. She has spent some time training with post-collegiates and professional runners. She incorporated more tempo runs and upped her mileage in those workouts to get stronger. When the season started in August, another decision was avoid too much racing.

“I actually only ran three races this cross country season,” she said. “I just didn’t try to overrace this year. Last year, I felt like I raced a little too much.”

Of her three races, two of them came within the last three weeks, as she defended her RIIL Class Championship to become a three-time Class C champion on Oct. 29, and then the following weekend was her state title win over two-time defending champion Fahys of East Greenwich. 

“(In the state championship) I stayed behind them in the first two miles or so," she said "It didn’t go out as fast as I expected it too, so that, I would say, played to my benefit. That didn’t bother me.

“And with a little over 1K to go, I just pushed the pace and started to kick from there.”

With her final cross country race finished, as Gorriaran said she won’t be partaking in any national qualifying meets. Her attention is now on indoor track and wrapping up her collegiate plans in the next month or so.

Gorriaran will also shift focus to indoor track and the possibility of eclipsing two minutes in the 800 meters and driving down her PR in the mile.  She'll open her season Dec. 3 at the BU Sharon Colyear-Danville Season Opener.