It will be a long day of track & field this weekend when teams statewide occupy the PCTA field house for the RIIL Class Championships. The results of Saturday’s meet, which features Class A, B & C, will crown a combined six team champions and 72 individuals/relay squads.
(Above photo by Sterling Vernon of @rhodeandtrack)
The expected nine-plus hours of competition will further give us a glimpse of the outstanding talent out there and what to expect at the State Meet in two more weeks. It will be intense.
Below is our final preview, the girls’ Class A meet.
Without further adieu, here we go…
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Class A Championship – Girls
Day/Time: Saturday at 9 a.m.
Teams: Central, East Providence, Woonsocket, Cranston West, Mount Pleasant, Cumberland, North Kingstown, Toll Gate, Coventry, La Salle, Hope, Pilgrim
Top Events To Watch: A strong start out of the blocks could be the difference in the 55-meter dash, which matches East Providence’s Nazarae Phillip and Hope’s Zariyah Brown. Both come in with identical seed times of 7.47 seconds. Phillip, a bronze-medalist at last year’s meet, has been consistently in that range all season. Brown’s PR effort, which came at the divisional championship, was a best by two tenths of a second…At a few out-of-state competitions, Pilgrim’s Keaney Bayha has run the fastest times in the state for the 3K (10:02.82) and the 1,500m (4:39.88). Both times came en route to bests of 10:36.76 for 3,200m at last weekend’s NY International Showcase and 4:59.90 for the mile at the Millrose Games Trials on Jan. 8. Bayha is entered in the 1,500m and 3K on Saturday as well as the 600m where she’s the No. 1 seed. In typical Keaney-fashion, we don’t expect her to scratch from any of the events on Saturday. Bayha will face North Kingstown’s talented duo of Lucy Stowe and Abbie Tighe in the 3K. The Skipper teammates have each run 10:12 this season. While she’s capable of a sub-10, we expect the favored Bayha to have a more conservative effort in this race and not go all-out. In other words, expect all three runners, who are more than 30 seconds faster than the next seed, to run together for most of the 16 laps before switching gears the final one or two laps. The 1,500m will be the biggest challenge for Bayha. In this race, she’ll be facing a fresh-legged Kiley DeFusco. The Cumberland senior, who has a best this season of 4:43.40, likes to take charge from the gun. Expect her to utilize that strategy on Saturday to make this race her own by the time she reaches the midway point. In addition to DeFusco and Bayha, this race features four more that have cracked five minutes this season, including La Salle’s Alyssa Parenteau (4:49.73), Tighe (4:52.03), North Kingstown’s Maura Whitney (4:56.27) and Cumberland’s Rose Tuomisto (4:57.34). Now we have the 600m. We predict this will be a close one with at least three runners figuring in the mix – Bayha (1:40.00), La Salle’s Carolina Terlato (1:41.49) and North Kingstown’s Abigail Nicolopoulos (1:42.74). Look for DeFusco to pull off the double. She’s also the No. 1 seed in the 1,000m with her best of 2:58.12. Parenteau is No. 2 at 3:03.59…As usual, the weight throw should produce some drama. The top seed is Toll Gate’s Vanessa Jones, who unleashed a state best and nation No. 3 of 55 feet, 4.5 inches at last weekend’s RITCA Invitational. Jones has been consistent all season long and will be tough to beat on Saturday. But the field also includes three more that have exceeded 50 feet this winter and could pose a threat to Jones, That trio includes Coventry’s Mia Hoskins (53-8), Woonsocket’s Adelaide Caron (51-3) and Cumberland’s Payton Goulding (50-6.5). Coming close to the 50-foot mark with three 49-footers this winter is Woonsocket’s Isabella Piette, who owns a best of 49-9.75. She could also join Club 50 this weekend.
Team Outlook: This looks like it could be a close one between North Kingstown and La Salle, who both have outstanding depth. Cumberland looks primed for the third spot.
