While many of our track & field athletes were competing this past weekend at the RITCA Invitational, a few ventured out to Boston University’s Track & Tennis Center for the BU Mini Meet on the lightning-fast 200-meter oval.
In fact, we even had one of our coaches among the entries. At the “young” age of 58, longtime Toll Gate coach Norm Bouthillier participated in the Mixed Mile along with some of his athletes. While he came up short of his goal of breaking five minutes, Norm was still quite impressive and proved, once again, that age is just a number by clocking 5 minutes, 10.69 seconds to place 96th among the 155 finishers.
The event featured three of the Titans’ coach’s athletes with John Maynard finishing 48th overall with a time of 4:44.09. Joshua Maynard placing 58th in 4:48.53 and Allison Pankowicz racing to a time of 5:20.54, good for 114th overall.
Cranston West’s Alonnzo Parker-Sharpe won the Mixed 400m by running the fastest among a field of 33 entries with his time of 51.09. The Falcon senior was also third in the 200m with a 22.55 best.
The sprinting trio of Cranston West’s Ailani Sutherland and West Warwick’s Lisa and Xenia Raye took advantage of the banked oval with some strong performances in the shorter races. In the mixed 400m, the Raye sisters finished 10th and 11th overall with Lisa timed in 57.88 and Xenia finishing at 58.48. Classical’s Zaida Depina was 16th in 59.09, while Sutherland was 19th with a time of 1:00.70. The sophomore-junior Raye duo blazed to times of 24.84 and 25.3 to place 17th and 18th, respectively, in the Mixed 200m. Sutherland also went sub-26, crossing the line in 25.86.
Mount St. Charles seniors Ethan Fadden (25th, 9:00.83) and Emmy Belvin (82nd, 10:44.63) had solid efforts in the Mixed 3,000m. Former East Greenwich standout Ben Fazio was tenth in the 3K with a time of 8:39.14. Cumberland alum Bryan Kuchar was 33rd in the Mixed 800m, clocking 2:16.62.
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A few athletes earned some top spots in the national rankings after this past weekend’s RITCA Invitational, and league action. In the boys’ 3K, our 1-2-3 finishers from Saturday’s meet are among the top 10 with individual winner Marshall Vernon of La Salle at No. 4 (8:49.18), Hendricken’s Jack Moretta at No. 6 (8:54.89) and the Hawks’ Will Olson at No. 7 (8:58.0). Moses Brown’s Eli Ziegler, who ran 9:01.81 in a league meet last week, is 11th in the rankings. He’s followed by Saint Raphael’s JJ Rocha (14th, 9:07.62) and Hendricken’s Sam Zabbo (15th, 9:08.47). The 1,500m has five in the top 15 with Moretta at No. 9 with his 4:08.10 best from a league meet and Barrington’s Brandon Piedade (11th, 4:09.21), Ziegler (12th, 4:09.67), Portsmouth’s Sean Gray (13th, 4:12.63) and Cumberland’s William O’Shea (15th, 4:13.13) occupying top spots after their 1-2-3-4 finish at the RITCA Invitational.
Per usual, our weight throwers are populating the list. For girls, RITCA winner Susan Adekonie of Classical is ranked No. 2 in the nation after her toss of 49-7.25. Taking the third, fourth and fifth spots in the rankings are Woonsocket’s Adelaide Caron (49-1.5), Coventry’s Mia Hoskins (48-2) and Woonsocket’s Isabella Piette (46-5.75), who took the next three spots behind Adekonie at this past weekend’s meet. In the boys’ rankings, Exeter/West Greenwich’s Owen Spira (sixth, 64-1.5), Woonsocket’s Adam Beaudry (ninth, 62-9) and Coventry’s Zack Delsasso (10th, 62-0.5) made the top 10 after going 1-2-3 at the RITCA Invite
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Mark these meets on your calendar. On Sunday, Jan. 7 is the inaugural Marathon Sports Winter Classic, sponsored by New Balance. The meet will feature a full slate of events and will take place at the TRACK at New Balance, one of the fastest tracks in the world. You want PRs, here’s your meet. Registration is open now and can be done on Direct Athletics. For more information and to register, click HERE.
Just six days later, HOKA and Marathon Sports will be sponsoring the annual East Coast Invitational, to be held Jan. 16-17 at the PCTA fieldhouse. Ocean State Running will also be live streaming the meet, which includes several different events from the standards, such as the mile, two mile, 400m, 800m, and shuttle hurdle relay,. Click HERE for more information and to register.
