The state has several athletes shine at this past weekend’s New England Championships. West Warwick’s Lisa Raye defended her titles in the 55-meter dash and 300m, both times establishing new meet records. The La Salle Academy boys earned gold in the 4x200m, and became only the third team to break 1 minute, 30 seconds. In the shot put, Pilgrim’s Brandon Wolfenden joined the 60-foot club to take second overall.
All these were splendid performances by our RI athletes, and worthy of being selected as our HOKA Athletes of the Week. But we have two more that we feel are just as deserving and are our selections for this week’s honor. One was an upset victory in the 4x800m relay and the other a new state record for the 55m hurdles. Congratulations to our latest honorees, the North Kingstown girls 4×8 and Barrington hurdler Bobby Wind.
A sixth seed in the race, the NK quartet of Maura Whitney, Abby Nicolopoulos, Lucy Stowe and Abbie Tighe upset a strong field to win it all with a school record and US #13 of 9:21.85. In the 55m HH, Wind matched his runner-up finish from last year. The only thing this time is that this one put him in the record books. Competing against two-time winner Lucas Andrade, the recent state champion pushed the Brockton ((MA) standout to the very last hurdle, clocking a huge PR of 7.37. His effort erased the 21-year-old mark of 7.41, set by former Hope star Yudehweh “Pete” Gbaa in 2024,
