Want to get a better idea what will happen at the State Meet on Feb. 15? Head on down to the PCTA field house this Saturday when ALL our teams and athletes will occupy the Providence facility for the RIIL Class Championships. In order, it will be schools from Class A, B and then C competing against each other. It all starts at 9 a.m., and should finish around 6:30 p.m. We’ll provide capsules of all six meets (boys and girls) leading up to this weekend’s competition.
In conjunction with the RIIL and NFHS Network, Ocean State Running will also be livestreaming the meet.
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A couple of faces we haven’t seen too much of his winter at the PCTA are Lisa and Xenia Raye. The West Warwick sisters are not ignoring their state rivals, it’s just that they’ve been kind of busy the last few weeks, competing at a bunch of high-level competitions along the east coast. The latest for the talented siblings came at this past Saturday’s New York International Showcase, held at the Ocean Breeze Track and Field Facility on Staten Island.
Once again, Lisa broke another state record (her own, of course) during the two-day meet. The Wizard phenom easily captured the Invitational 60-meter dash with a time of 7.24 seconds. She erased her one-week old mark of 7.26 from the VA Showcase. Lisa was also the first to break the tape in the Invitational 200m where she was timed in 23.45. Xenia was eighth among the 21 entries with a PR of 24.49. Lisa’s effort was just six hundredths of a second from her state mark of 23.39 from the VA Showcase.
The Raye’s weren’t the only RI athletes at the meet. Pilgrim’s Keaney Bayha competed in two events – the 3,200m and 1,600m. In both races, she placed second overall. Bayha clocked a best of 10:36.76 for the 3,200m and 5:01.61 for the 1,600m. Her effort in the 3,200m was the second fastest all-time in the state behind former La Salle Academy great Kaylie Armitage’s 10:30.59 from the VA Showcase in 2021.
Next up for the Raye sisters and Bayha are the class meets. The Raye’s and West Warwick will be looking to win their third straight class title, and first in the newly-aligned (and named) Class B meet. The Wizards were the recipients of the Medium School crowns the last two years. Bayha and her Pilgrlm teammates are in Class A.
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Count Devan Kipyego as our state’s latest sub four-minute milers. The former Saint Raphael standout, a sophomore at Iowa State, earned the milestone at the Cyclone Open this past Friday.
In one of the featured events of the day, Kipyego placed second overall in the mile with a PR of 3:56.37. He was just behind teammate Emanuel Galdino, who was timed in a school record of 3:55.84. SRA alum and Iowa State senior Darius Kipyego, older brother of Devan, acted as a pacer in the race. Seriously, how cool is that?
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After a brief hiatus, we’re brining back our HOKA Athlete of the Weeks.
But it will be a little different this time around. Instead of us making the weekly picks for boys and girls, we’re leaving that up to you. Each week on our Instagram account, we’re going to conduct a poll with our choices on who should be considered for the honor. Let us know and the rest is history.
