Where do we start? Where do we end? With 19 events and a whole lot of talent, it’s not easy. On Saturday at Conley Stadium, our state’s best will provide the entertainment for all us track & field enthusiasts at the RIIL State Outdoor T&F Championships. Records will be broken and we’re sure a few hearts, too. Unfortunately, that often comes with the territory.
While we know there’s plenty more, here’s our top storylines for the boys’ meet.
(PHOTOS courtesy of Sterling Vernon @rhodeandtrack)
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Oftentimes, when the top athletes are close in talent, we say stuff like, “take your pick,” rather than single out athlete or two when writing our previews. That couldn’t be more to the extreme about the hammer competition this weekend. When we say, “take your pick,” this weekend, it not about one or two or even three athletes. It literally could be among a group of six or more this weekend. That’s how crazy this field is for Saturday’s meet. That’s how difficult it is to predict just who will be the last one standing when the final toss is released. Want proof? Just look at last weekend’s results at the Bishop Hendricken Invitational where eight athletes exceeded 200 feet! The event was won by the Hawks’ Matt Giuliano with a best of 219-5. Seems like a good pick for the individual title, right? After all, he does seem to always be ready when the competitions is at its’ best. Remember, he was our indoor weight titlist. But in an event where Woonsocket coach Marc Piette feels that even two more could go 200-plus this season, you can’t just rest your laurels on Giuliano. Not at all. There’s Coventry’s Zack DelSasso, our nation-leader. He was second to Giuliano at the Hawk Invite with a toss of 217-2, just a week after his all-time best of 223-3 at the Class A meet, a PR at the time of 13 feet! He, too, appears to be hitting his stride with the championship season here. Hendricken’s Derek Goll was third at last Saturday’s meet at 217-0, less than a foot short of his PR of 217-11 from his third-place finish at Class A’s. He seems to be right on target for a peak performance at Conley. It’s no secret that Hendricken is one of the favorites to win the team title. Giuliano and Goll have that extra motivation to succeed on Saturday. If you’re stopping here on picking contenders for the title, it would seem a little foolish. In our eyes, there’s plenty more you have to consider. There’s Exeter/West Greenwich’s Owen Spira. He won the Class C title with a 216-5 best. How about Woonsocket’s Shamrock Thoun? Before this year, Thoun’s best was 151-10 from his seventh-place finish at the JV State Meet in 2023. This year. the Villa Novan sophomore has a PR of 214-8 from his win at the Northern Division Championships. He’s a guy that could come up big this weekend and earn his school their second crown in the last three years. Tarik Robinson-O’Hagan, remember him? He won in 2022. The list continues with Narragansett’s Owen Degnan. The Mariner senior had a 16-foot best of 210-4 to take runner-up honors at the Class C meet. Take your pick? Good luck in this one.
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As usual, the distance events can create quite a bit of excitement on Saturday. From the 800m to the two mile, we could have races that literally come down to the final few meters of the race. Unlike the previous two years when just about any race that Devan Kipyego was entered in the St. Ray’s star won, this year there’s no clear-cut favorite. You have to label La Salle’s Marshall Vernon as the top contender in the 3,000m and 1,500m. After all, he is among our top seeds and captured the two events during the indoor season. While he has the No. 2 seed for the 1,500m at 4:03.87, he has run faster this season. Back on May 3, the La Salle sophomore clocked an all-time best of 4:10.64 from the BSR Elite Scholastic Mile. That computes to a low 3:50 for the 1,500m distance. But you’d be remiss to think that Vernon’s the only one that can strike it rich in this event. How about No. 1 seed Cole Francis of Narragansett. The Mariner junior ran a solo 4:02.24 at the Sgt. Brian St. Germain Invitational on May 11, a race he won by five seconds! This past weekend at Hendricken, he demonstrated his speed with a runner-up finish in the 800m where he clocked his all-time best of 1:55.27. Francis was a second in the 1,500m and 1,000m at the indoor states this past winter and a silver medalist in the 3K last winter as a sophomore. He’s not only deserving of winning his first individual title, he’s ready! You can’t forget Cumberland’s Will O’Shea, too. The Clipper senior ran a PR of 4:17.84 for the mile at the Glenn B. Loucks Games in New York a few weeks ago, hitting his 1,500m split in 4:00.69. We’re also thinking that Moses Brown’s Eli Ziegler could be a threat. The Quaker senior always comes to race and brings a 4:05.30 to the line. He was third in the 800m at Hendricken where ran a best of 1:55.78. There’s several more in this race that will help push the pace like Barrington teammates Brandon Piedade (4:04.88) and Myles Napolitano (4:05.65) and Cumberland’s Connor Magill (4:08.24), our Class A winner. We can assure you this one won’t turn tactical. It will be fast. There are too many runners that want to win this race. Expect a sub four-minute effort by one or more on Saturday. The conditions are predicted to be ideal and the field is strong. The next event on the track of the trio is the 800m where we have red-hot Thomas Breen as our No. 1 seed. Classical’s talented senior raced to an all-time best of 1:53.96 to capture the individual title at the Hawk Invite. He also has sub 49-second speed for the 400m with a PR of 49.15 from his win at the Classical Classic. He’s a tough runner that appears to have a high threshold of pain. At the Class B Championships, he won the 800m in 1:56.97, shortly after finishing second in the 400m in 49.81. Ziegler’s also in this race after a sure-to-be dogfight in the 1,500m. Will he have enough to pull off the grueling double? You can’t ignore a fresh-legged Jeremy Roe. The Ponaganset senior scratched from the 1,500m to concentrate solely on his race where he has a seed of 1:56.41, a time that ranks No. 3 in this field. During the indoor season, Roe scratched from the 1,500 to concentrate on the 1,000m. The strategy worked perfectly as he won his first individual title. Will he be able to repeat the magic this weekend? There’s also Westerly’s Robbie Wade, who clocked a best of 1:56.41 to place third to Breen and Roe at the St. Germain Invite. This past weekend, he nearly broke 50 seconds at Hendricken with a second-place time of 50.25. Expect the opening 400m in this race to be around 56 seconds. We give our nod to Breen, but it won’t be easy. Not at all. Lastly, there’s the 3K with Francis, Portsmouth’s Sean Gray and Vernon our top three seeds. Out of this group, Gray will be the only runner with fresh legs. The Patriots’ sophomore always likes to make the race honest and we can almost guarantee that will be his plan this weekend. He’ll make his competitors work hard with a grinder from the very beginning. While he’s a third seed based on his winning time of 8:50.21 from Hendricken, Vernon has run a lot faster. At the Loucks Games a few weeks ago, he ran 3,200m in 9:01.62 and passed through the 3K mark in a state-leading 8:30.18. Francis has an outdoor PR of 8:44.47 from the Classical Classic. Gray’s best is 8:48.42 from his second-place finish to Francis at Classical. He also went sub 8:50 at the St. Germain Invite with an 8:49.67 winning effort. In his last two meets, the Portsmouth standout won the Class B title at 8:52.50 and ran an all-time best of 4:03.15 to take the 1,500m at the Hawk Invite. He appears to be peaking at just the right time to prosper at the states. Keep an eye on Cumberland’s Sam Henderson, a late addition to the entry list. The state cross-country champion comes in with a season best of 8:55 from his win at the Northern Division Championships last month. Like Gray, he’ll have fresh legs. Look for this to be a possible event that can make or break Hendricken for the team title. The Hawks have the next three seeds in this race with Will Olsen (8:54.99), Jack Moretta (8:58.19) and Sam Zabbo (9:01.98).
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It’s no secret that indoor titlist Barrington is one of the favorites to win this title this weekend. In fact they may be THE favorite. Along with several more events, it also no secret that the Eagles can score a considerable amount of points in the hurdle events. By our calculations, Barrington can score at least 35 points in the 110m HH and 300m IH on Saturday. But there’s another thing to keep an eye on in these two events – the state records. For the 110m HH, the mark is 13.98 and for the 300m IH its 38.13. For the shorter race, Barrington teammates Ethan Knight and Bobby Wind have the best chance to challenge the 20-year-old mark, set by former Hope great Yudehweh “Pete” Gbaa. Just like the indoor season, both have been back-and-forth all spring. Wind has a state-leading 14.22 from the Classical Classic, while Knight has a best of 14.27. The two will need each other again to have any chance at going sub-14, which might seem a stretch, but is certainly possible in a meet like this. The 300m IH has belonged to Knight the last three weeks where he’s broken 39 seconds with victories at St. Germain (PR, 38.67), Class B (38.94) and Hendricken (38.90). He’ll have plenty of competition to push him on Saturday with hurdlers like defending champion Aidan Bienvenue (38.83) and Portsmouth’s Landon Rodrigues among the top entries.
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Over the last 10-plus years, La Salle has been noted for its outstanding distance core, one that’s helped the Rams win them a bunch of state titles. While the Rams still possess some talented runner for the longest races on the track, their sprinters have really come on strong lately, particularly this season. It’s an area that could be a difference-maker for Rams in their quest for a team title. La Salle is ranked No. 1 in the 4x100m (42.20) and the 4x400m (3:22.29). In the 200m, the Rams have four of the top 10 seeds. Sophomore Garrett Giroux-Pezzullo is tied at No. 1 with Chariho’s Elias Sposato with identical times of 21.95. LSA junior Amari Monteiro is at No. 3 with a best of 22.18. At No. 7 is Joshua Aceto (22.41) and tied at No. 8 is freshman Jackson Alves (22.64). For the 400m, junior Thaden Leomensah is the fourth seed with a best of 50.10. Tied at the seventh seed in the 100m is Giroux Pezzullo. Do the math, if everything works out as planned in those events, that’s about 40 points that could be added to their total in the five events.
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Team-wise, Barrington appears to have the firepower to get it done this weekend, following up its first indoor crown with its first ever on the outdoor surface. But you can never count out Hendricken, the defending champions, who have captured 27 of these things, including three of the last four. La Salle is also a team that can’t be ignored.
