While most of our teams are taking the week off from competition, a few will be venturing down to St. John’s Prep in Danvers, Mass., on Friday night for the second annual BSR Mid-Distance Classic. La Salle Academy, Moses Brown, and Mount St. Charles will all be sending athletes to the meet (4 p.m. start) with a some capable of stealing the top prize in their respective events.
La Salle has the top four runners in the boys’ 400-meter run, including top seed Garrett Giroux Pezzullo, the defending champion. As a freshman last year, Giroux-Pezzullo kicked off his season with a winning time of 51.70 seconds. The Rams’ tenth-grader has an all-time best of 50.79 from the Bishop Hendricken Invitational last May and has gone sub-50 with his leg on the team’s 4x400m squad. Junior teammate Thaden Leomensah has a listed seed of 49.80, fellow classmate Aman Monteiro is at 50.10 and freshman Jackson Alves has a seed of 50.40. Nearly 100 runners are entered in this event.
The Rams’ Alexis Caggiano, the bronze medalist in the 300m at the indoor states this past winter, tops the entries in the girls’ 400m. Caggiano, a senior, has a seed of 58.93, which she did to finish 18th overall at the Nike Indoor Nationals in early March. LSA junior Arielle DeMarco is the No. 2 seed (1:02.10). Moses Brown’s Kathryn Gauvin is listed as a four seed with a best of 1:02.50.
In the boys’ 800m, La Salle sophomore Marshall Vernon ranks No. 1 in what looks to be a competitive field, one that features 10 with times under two minutes. Vernon, the state’s 3K and 1,500m champion this past winter, has a listed seed of 1:56 flat. Vernon is coming off a season where he had bests of 4:16.22 for the mile and 8:36.0 for the 3,000, efforts that earned him runner-up spots at the New England’s and the Yale Track Classic, respectably. Other top seeds from the Ocean State are Moses Brown teammates Xavier Ohl (1:59.25 and Owen Buroker (1:59.75), who are ranked ninth and tenth on Friday.
Mount St. Charles’ Emmy Belvin is the No. 2 seed in the 800m (2:18.47) and a four seed in the mile (5:12.37). The Mountie senior, who won the 600m crown at the states in mid February, was second in the mile at last year’s meet. In the 800m, she matches up against a field that features two others runners that have broken 2:20. Westford Academy’s Abigail Hennessey is the No. 1 seed with a time of 2:15.0. La Salle’s Mia Bettez is the fifth seed at 2:20.
La Salle’s Grace Keosykhao (30 feet) is the No. 1 seed in the girls’ shot. The Rams’ Matt Moretti (44-7) holds the fourth spot for boys.
The BSR Mid-Distance Classic will be live streamed and available on Bay State Running’s YouTube page.
