For the next few months, it’s all about the outdoor track & field season as our RI athletes look to achieve PRs, individual and/or team titles this spring on the state level and, for some, even beyond the borders. Who are some of the top individuals we should keep an eye on this spring? Here we preview what we consider some of the best in the boys’ hurdling events.
(Above photo by Sterling Vernon @RhodeAndTrack)
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110m HH
At the New England Indoor Championships last month, Barrington’s Bobby Wind achieved his season-long goal of breaking the state 55m hurdle record. Can he do the same in this event? The current mark is 13.98, held by Hope’s Yudehweh “Pete” Gbaa from 2004. We believe that 21-year-old record is within the reach of Wind in his final season as a high-schooler. The Barrington all-stater is the clear-cut favorite to capture his specialty at the State Meet in early June. Wind was second to graduating senior and teammate Ethan Knight at last year’s meet. It was a season where he was consistently in the mid-to-low 14 minute range, including a state No. 1 and PR of 14.22 from the Classical Classic. Just like the indoor season, Wind’s top challenger appears to be La Salle’s Jalen Moseley, who was second to the Barrington standout at the recent indoor states and a bronze medalist in this event last spring as a ninth-grader with a time of 15.36. He improved on that time by two hundredths of a second at the New England’s. From there, a bunch more could be battling for those top podium spots with Hendricken’s Elijah Guertin, Barrington’s Jared Lesk, Rogers’ Jakari Medina, and Hendricken’s Tristan Jordan among that group. All four were under 16 seconds last year.
300m HH
This is an event that certainly has the potential to be close come championship time. Among our top hurdlers, four broke 41 seconds last year with St. Raphael’s Devan Tavares (40.09), La Salle’s Antonio Bearden (40.14), Wind (40.34) and La Salle Aiden Tucker (40.73). With our first four finishers from last year’s state championship all gone to graduation. Bearden and Wind are our top returnees from that meet after finishing fifth and sixth, respectively. No doubt Wind will have a potential sweep of all the hurdle events (indoor and outdoor) this year as a motivator. This one will provide his biggest challenge with several capable of earning gold at the states. The state record is 38.13 by North Kingstown alum Benjamin Stewart from 2014. We’ll know early if there’s a chance that mark will go down this spring.
