With so many variables, it’s never easy. But we’ll give it our best shot predicting who we feel will be some of our top track & field athletes this outdoor season. Here we feature the boys’ distance events, which includes the 800m, 1,500m and 3,000m.
800m
The state lost a plethora of 800m specialist from last year with the top seven in the rankings gone to graduation and all but one coming back that made it to the podium at the State Meet. That doesn’t mean we’re short on talent. Among our bests are Ponaganset’s Jeremy Roe and Moses Brown’s Eli Ziegler. Roe captured the 1,000m at the State Meet in a well-executed race and then finished the season with a PR of 2:31.94 at the New England’s. He also ran 1:59.28 for the 800m at the New Balance Nationals. Ziegler, who was the lone non-senior to score in the 800m at last year’s outdoor states, finishing seventh overall, concluded a successful indoor campaign with his best track. After finishing third in the 1K at the State Meet, the Quaker senior clocked a four-second best and state-leading 2:31.23 at the New England’s, where he was sixth overall. A week later, he ran a PR and state best of 1:56.84 for the 800m at the New Balance Nationals. Look for both Roe and Ziegler to be near 1:55 or faster in this event this season. Other runners we expect to be under two minutes or in that low two-minute range are Narragansett’s Cole Francis, Cumberland’s Will O’Shea, St. Raphael’s JJ Rocha, Cumberland’s Connor Magill and Mount St. Charles’ Ethan Fadden.
1,500m
The top two runners in this event also happen to be our only two runners that broke 4:20 for the mile – La Salle’s Marshall Vernon and the Mariners’ Francis. Vernon’s best for the 1,500m came at the State Meet after winning the 3K less than an hour earlier. The Rams’ talented sophomore raced to a best of 4:01.73 to edge a fresh-legged Francis, who ran a PR of 4:02.16 for second. Vernon capped off his season by taking runner-up honors in the mile at the New England’s with a 4:16.22 best, while Francis was fourth at 4:18.81, also a best. Expect both to be under four minutes this season. While we expect them to be among our leaders, there’s plenty more that can challenge for those top positions, Ziegler was second to Francis at the Class C meet where he finished with a best of 4:04.92. He’s capable of faster on the outdoor surface. There’s also runners like Barrington’s Brandon Piedade, the Clippers’ O’Shea, the Mounties’ Fadden and plenty more that were in that 4:05 to 4:09 range during indoor. O’Shea kicked off the spring campaign this past weekend with a 4:19 anchor leg on his team’s winning 4xMile squad at the Knights of Columbus Relays.
3,000m
The favorite here is Vernon, our state champion. The La Salle standout ran his all-time best of 8:36 to finish second in a very close race at the Yale Track Classic in January. He ran the state’s second fastest time, too, by capturing his specialty at the State Meet with a time of 8:40.65, a race that would be the start of a stellar afternoon for Vernon at the PCTA fieldhouse where he also won the 1,500m and placed fourth in the 1,000m. We expect gifted tenth-grader to be in that low 8:30 range, and probably faster this spring. He won’t be alone, though. We have a couple more we believe will be under 8:40 by season’s end – state runner-up Sean Gray of Portsmouth and Francis. Gray continued his breakout season in cross country, one where he was fourth at the states, with a strong indoor campaign. The determined sophomore ran a best of 8:45.66 at the states and went sub-5 pace for the 5K at the New Balance Nationals with a time of 15:16.20. The gritty Francis did not compete in this event at the State Meet but ran a PR of 8:40.93 at the GBTC Invitational at Harvard and also went 9:23.44 for the two mile at the New Balance Nationals, an effort that computes to a low 8:40 for the 3K. Other runners we expect to be fighting for those podium spots at the championship meets are Hendricken teammates Will Olson and Jack Moretta, and St. Raphael’s Jason Padula, to name a few.
