“Competing at Hayward Field, in front of that crowd, was an out-of-this-world experience.”
Those were the words of West Warwick’s Lisa Raye about this past weekend’s USATF National Junior Olympic Championships inside the University of Oregon’s historic stadium.
For Raye and the other members of her club team, the Providence Cobras, it was indeed a memorable weekend. Wrapping up the last two days of the meet, Raye kept her unbeaten streak this season in the 200-meter dash intact on Saturday by capturing the national title in 23.74 seconds. On Sunday, the multiple all-stater took runner-up honors in the 100m where she blazed to a time of 11.99, just three hundredths of a second behind London Jackson Bray of Track Houston. This was only Raye’s second loss of the season. At the beginning of the spring campaign, she placed second to Cranston West’s Ailani Sutherland at the Classical Classic.
In the 17-18 4x100m on Saturday, the Cobras’ foursome of Sutherland, West Warwick’s Xenia Raye, Ava Lamberto of Ursuline Academy (MA) and Zaida Depina of Classical finished seventh overall with a quick 47.60.
