What can we say?
From high school to college, it was quite the weekend for our Rhode Island athletes that competed at their respective national meets. In all, we had a total of 10 All Americans at the New Balance Nationals and Nike Indoor Nationals from our high-schoolers. On the collegiate level, four of our former stars made the podium at the NCAA Division 1 Indoor Championships
Before we begin by giving you a rundown on what made it so special this past weekend for the Ocean State, we’d like to start by talking about a few things. We spent three days at the TRACK at new balance, an awesome facility and the site of the New Balance Nationals. With the task of covering both the MA and RI athletes for the respective Bay State Running and Ocean State Running sites, we learned that to give the meet its just due a team of several dedicated individuals are needed. It’s not something that can be accomplished, at least to the standards that we set forth for meets like these, by a limited staff. With that being said, moving forward, we’d like to recruit passionate people like us that want to help produce the best possible product for this great sport. We can always use the extra help in a variety of different ways; current and/or former athletes, parents, or anyone else that would like to assist us in our coverage at meets like these, please let us know and how you can assist. Just email us at smazzone5@gmail.com.
Here is something else we’d like to address and feel it’s of the utmost importance. If you were one of the athletes that had the opportunity to compete at these national meets, we’d first like to congratulate you on the fact that you made it this far, the fact that you earned the qualifying standards to compete against the very best. That’s something to be proud of. That’s something you should take great pride in achieving. Everything else that happens…that’s just extra. If you had a positive outcome from your performance, it’s a bonus. Nothing more. In this thing called life, we place far too much emphasis on reaching the pinnacle of success. More and more emphasis is put on winning or earning that coveted medal than ever before. The pressure can often be insurmountable, especially at national championship meets like this past weekend. If you didn’t quite accomplish what you set out to achieve, whether it was winning an event, making the podium or improving on your best, remember it’s only one meet. For most of you, they’ll be plenty more. For the few others, who were competing for the last time as a high school or college athlete, there will be plenty more opportunities to shine, plenty more opportunities to demonstrate your talent, whatever it may be. Please, keep your head up no matter how you did this past weekend. And, once again, congratulations for making it this far. You’re among a select and very special group.
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ln our summary of these meets, let’s begin with our collegians. We had some pretty impressive performances by our star alums at the NCAAs in Albuquerque, N.M.
How about former Woonsocket standout Tarik Robinson-O’Hagan? After everything he accomplished in the throwing events during a decorated high school career, we knew he’d continue to excel at the collegiate level, and the University of Mississippi freshman certainly did…right from the start. Capping off an incredible first season for Ole Miss, Robinson-OHagan placed third overall in the weight throw with a heave of 75 feet, 4 inches. Just in front of him was defending champion and ex-Barrington great Bobby Colantonio, the fifth-year Alabama senior, who went 76-9.25 for second.
After a running an all-time best of 3 minutes, 55.24 seconds for the mile at the Boston University David Hemery Valentine Invitational in mid February, we figured there was a good chance that former Classical star Conor Murphy could solidify a spot at the NCAAs. The current Virginia sophomore did, as the No. 10 seed, further demonstrating the incredible depth of the field. After finishing third in his heat with the third fastest time of all the competitors in the prelims with a 4:03.01 clocking, the onetime state 800m record-holder earned All-American honors with a sixth-place showing in the finals. In a tactical race, his time of 4:04.22 was just five hundredths of a second ahead of Oregon’s Elliott Cook, who was seventh overall in 4:04.27. Murphy, who’s gone sub-50 for 400m in relays, utilized his speed in the end to secure his spot on the podium. He covered his final 400m in 55.14 and the last 200m at 26.17.
While she does live just over the border in Mattapoisett, MA, Murphy’s Virginia teammate, sophomore Margot Appleton, made the Ocean State her home during her four-year prep career at Portsmouth Abbey. Defying the odds, Appleton, who just squeaked into the NCAAs as one of the last seeds and was the final qualifier in the prelims, placed fourth overall in the women’s mile with a time of 4:35.83. Iowa State’s Cebastian Gentil of East Greenwich, who also qualified for the nationals, is a second-team All American based on his 1:46.75 best for the 800m .
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On to our high-school athnletes.
It was good to see Sophia Gorriaran add a national title to her incredible resume. It’s not like we didn’t expect it from the Moses Brown senior, who coasted to a time of 2:07.30 to solidify her crown on Saturday. She came back the next day and placed third in the mile (4:41.94) and anchored the fifth-place 4x400m relay (3:57.23) with a 400m split of just over 54 seconds! Kudos to her remaining team members Skylar Maxwell (61.6), Kyle Eaton (58.9) and Sophia Mocco (62.7), who also had strong legs.
State and New England champion Christian Toro also was a multiple All American. The Lincoln senior was second in the weight throw at Nike with a toss of 77-6. The next day, he took the bronze at New Balance with a heave of 74-8.25.
Speaking of the boys’ weight throw, we can’t forget the performance of Hendricken’s Keith Daigneau, who earned the silver on his final throw where he unleashed a PR of 75-6.25. Talk about saving your best for last…literally!
In the girls’ weight, Lincoln’s Jillian Leahy gave winner, Mary Elle Brooks, everything she could handle before eventually finishing second overall with a career best of 54-1.75. Leahy fouled twice in the prelims, but on her second attempt went 48-10.75 to only trail Brooks heading into the finals. The Lions senior took the lead twice in the finals with 50-plus foot efforts of 51-7.75 and 52-8 on her first two throws, only to have the Raiston Valley (CO) senior respond with a further tosses, including her winning 54-3.75 effort on her fifth attempt. Leahy’s best came on her last attempt and was just .04 meters behind Brooks. You simply can’t ask for much more, especially in a meet of this magnitude,
There’s no doubt that West Warwick’s Lisa Raye is the next up-and-coming star both statewide and nationally, The Wizards’ freshman continued the momentum of the season by establishing a new state record in the Freshman 60m dash at New Balance. It was there Raye came just a hundredth of a second from garnering a victory, taking second overall in 7.54. That effort broke the nine-year-old mark of 7.65 by former Hope star Quashira McIntosh from the 2014 New Balance Nationals. Raye tied McIntosh’s record in her prelim heat a few hours earlier.
In the Rising Stars 200m, 55m state and New England runner-up Ailani Sutherland came one hundredth of a second from making it to the finals with a huge PR of 24.60 to win her heat. Raye was also under 25 seconds, clocking a best of 24.70 in her heat..West Warwick’s Xenia Raye also PR’d in the event with a 25.64 clocking.
We already knew how versatile La Salle’s Brady Fisher was based on what he’s done the last few years for the Rams in the sprints, hurdles and jumps, The multi-sport talent, who also stars on the school’s football and lacrosse teams, was fifth in the Pentathlon with 3,497 points. Fisher scored the most points in the 60m hurdles where his time of 8.65 added 825 points to his total. Here’s how he fared in his remaining events – high jump (6-0.75, 670 pts.), long jump (21-1.5, 643 pts.), shot (43-10.75, 640 pts.), and the 1,000m (3:03.70, 628 pts.). Fisher also ran a leg on the Rams’ 4x200m relay, a squad that finished ninth in the Rising Stars event with a state No. 2 of 1:30.74. Fisher was joined by teammates Jared Gibbons, Garrett Giroux-Pezzullo, and Joel Noel.
Moving to the top spot in the 4x200m was Central, which finished 27th in the Championship event with a time of 1:30.27. Comprising the foursome was Adonis Medina, Saquan Hall, Gabriel Dosunmu and Elijah Gardea.
Our last All American was Devan Kipyego in the mile. We’ve been to a bunch of these national meets over the last decade and his race ranks right up there as one of the most exciting we’ve ever witnessed on a stage like this. In a well-executed race, the St. Raphael senior kept himself in contention from the beginning. With 200m remaining, Kipyego and Jackson Heidesch of Dowling Catholic (IA) electrified an already-boisterous crowd and the meet announcers even more with a classic dogfight to the finish with Heidesch just having enough to hold off a diving Kipyego at the finish. Both runners went under the meet record with times of 4:02.25 and 4:02.30, respectively.
We can’t forget the performance of Hendricken’s Troy Silvestri, too. The Hawk senior competed in an insanely-talented 5K field where 18 runners broke 15 minute. Silvestri was one of them, placing third in his heat and 16th overall with a state record of 14:53.71, smashing the 2014 mark of 15:04.15 by former Hawk all-stater Colin Tierney.
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