Yes, it’s early and, as we all know, a lot can occur over the next three-plus months. Still, what happened during the indoor season last year and the subsequent outdoor campaign, and even cross country this past fall by our distance runners, can provide us enough background to make some good ole’ fashion predictions. So what will happen this season by our talented athletes?
Here we feature the boys’ sprinting and hurdle events.
55m
A few weeks ago, Hendricken’s Jeremy Seidi rushed for 124 yards and scored two touchdowns to lead the Hawks to the Division 1 title at the Super Bowl. While football is the Div. 1 college prospect’s forte, Seidi also happens to be very fast and is our state’s top returning sprinter. The gifted junior was third at the State Meet last year with a PR of 6.58 seconds, finishing behind Central’s Elijah Gardea and Cranston West’s Alonso Parker-Sharpe, who have since graduated. In a senior-laden race, he’s the only runner coming back from finals. Seidi, who followed the indoor season by taking the silver in the 100m during outdoor, gets the favorite nod here and could be instrumental in the Hawks’ quest for their 31st team crown since 1979-80. But don’t expect it to be a cakewalk for Seidi. There’s still plenty of talented that could make this race interesting. Central’s Joseph Forbes, who did not compete at the states, placed second to Gardea at the Class B Championships where he was timed in a best of 6.66 in his first season of track. Other top returnees ate La Salle’s Garrett Giroux-Pezzillo, and Lincoln’s Jayden Rodrigues, just to name a few. This is definitely an event we’re going to need at least a few more weeks into the season to predict who has a chance to shine come championship time as a bunch coming back are in the high 6.7 and mid 6.8 range right now.
300m
The No. 1 runner in this event is the Rams’ Giroux-Pezzullo, who was third at the State Meet last winter, tops among all our returnees. The speedy junior was the Class A winner and blazed to an all-time best of 35.25 to strike it rich at the Yale Track Classic on its banked oval. Garrett-Pezzullo has already gotten his season off to a great start, winning the 55m and 300m in a league meet last week, the latter in a quick, early-season time of 36.20. He’s coming off an outdoor season that saw him achieve bests in the 100m (11.18), 200m (21.64) and 400m (49.46). The Prout School’s Eli Wood (36.66), Barrington’s Bobby Wind (36.74), La Salle’s Joshua Aceto (36.78) and Barrington’s Will Digiacomo (36.78) are also returning and have broken 37 seconds for the 1.5-lapper.
600m
The top three finishers from last year’s State Meet have since graduated, which puts Westerly’s Noah Roberts as our top returnee. Roberts secured fourth at the championship meet where he was timed in a PR of 1:24.45. The Bulldogs senior has range from the 400m to the 1,500m, two events he owns PRs of 51.51 and 4:20.85, respectively. In his final season, we’re expecting him to be among a few that could be battling for the No. 1 spot at the states in mid February. The sixth- through ninth-place finishers from last year’s championship meet are all expected to be back on the oval with Moses Brown’s Zavier Ohl, La Salle’s Thaden Leomensah, North Kingstown’s Miki Ashenafi and Barrington’s Henry Stockwell comprising that quartet.
55m hurdles
The clear-cut favorite in this event is the Eagles’ Wind. The Barrington senior battled back-and-forth with teammate and eventual state titlist Ethan Knight in 2023-24. He was just four hundredths of a second behind Knight at the states where he clocked a near best of 7.58. He comes into this season with a PR of 7.54 from his win at the East Coast Invitational. That’s a time that is more than a half a second faster than his closest rival, a big margin in an event as short as this. The two-decade old state record of 7.41, set by Hope’s Yudehweh “Pete” Gbaa, has a slight chance of being broken this season by Wind who was also a runner-up in the 110m hurdles at the outdoor states. As for his RI competition, the No. 2 returnee also happen to wear the blue and yellow singlet of the Eagles, senior Jared Lesk. Lesk clocked a best of 8.08 to finish fifth at the State Meet. St. Raphael’s Devan Tavares (8.16), Portsmouth’s Sean Wilkey (8.23) , Hendricken’s Tristan Jordan (8.33) and Cumberland’s Matt Fontaine (8.33) are just a few more that could figure in the mix this season.
