Yes folks, with the State Meet on Saturday, it’s preview week here at Ocean State Running. We’ll do our best to let you know what to expect this weekend when the best of the best compete at Brown Stadium. Here we feature the girls’ middle- and long-distance events, which includes the 800-meter run, 1,500m and 3,000m.
(Please note: With the recent scratches, we have update this preview).
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800m
This is a race that could certainly get interesting in the closing stages. The top six runners in this field have broken 2 minutes, 20 seconds. At the No. 1 seed is Abilgail Nicolopoulus with a best of 2:15.62. Right behind is Cumberland’s Kylie DeFusco at 2:15.67. This will be DeFusco second of three races on Saturday as the Clippers make a stab on winning the school’s first state title since 1987. DeFusco will be competing in the event after running the 1,500m, where she’s the No. 1 seed. The Cumberland standout has proven to us numerous times that she can come back from a hard race in the 1,500m, most recently with her double victory in the 1,500m and 1K during the indoor states. But for her to win this race, it’s going to take an all-out effort, and nothing less. Nicolopoulus had a breakthrough race at the recent Mount Pleasant Invitational where NK sophomore ran a best by nearly nine seconds! There’s no doubt a race like that can go a long way in terms of confidence for this weekend’s competition. There’s also Moses Brown’s Skylar Maxwell, who was entered in the 400m and 800m prior to the scratch period. The new entry list came out last night and the Quaker junior did scratch from the 400m and will be concentrating on the 800m, and later the 4x400m. The Quakers’ junior has a seed of 2:16.30, a time we feel she can improve on significantly this weekend, perhaps under 2:15. She has 56-second speed for the 400m and has done sub-26 for the 200m, so has the best chance to come out on top if this race is close coming down the stretch, which we believe it will be. The other top runners in this field are La Salle’s Carolina Terlato (2:18.26), Rogers’ Laura Hoag (2:18.36) and La Salle teammates Alyssa Parenteau (2:19.42) and freshman Layne Stevens (2:20.14). Looks for the Rams to try and pick up some big points here in their quest for a team title.
1,500m
The Clippers’ DeFusco is the top seed in this race and the runner we expect will win on Saturday. DeFusco has a seed listed at 4:41.24, but has run much faster. At the Glenn B. Loucks Games in N.Y. on May 8, DeFusco finished seventh in the mile with a time of 4:52.74. En route to that time, she passed through the 1,500m mark in 4:31.84. That’s the fastest in this race by more than 11 seconds over the next seed. But that doesn’t mean she can coast to the title this weekend, but it does give her a little wiggle room to conserve some energy for the two other races she’s scheduled to compete in at the states. The No. 2 seed is Portsmouth’s Allie Kaull, who won the 1,500m crown at the Mount Pleasant Invite last weekend with a PR of 4:43.29. In a race like this, we believe Kaull is capable of getting that time under 4:40 this weekend. She’s shown the progression that makes us think that’s possible. There’s also runners like Parenteau (4:45.73) and North Kingstown’s Lucy Stowe (4:45.73) that should be battling for top positions. As she usually does, look for DeFusco to dictate the pace on Saturday. We don’t expect her to go all-out, but we do expect the pace to still be strong, maybe in the high 4:30 range by the time she finishes. She’s a smart runner and knows she can’t hold back too much in the race with a runner like Kaull on the line. This is a talented field. The race also includes three others that have broken 4:50 – North Smithfield’s Julie Dowling (4:47.11), Cumberland’s Charli McCue (4:48.51), and Bay View’s Jackie Mattos (4:49.06).
3,000m
This is not a typical State Meet for Keaney Bayha. Instead of her typical three or four events, the Pilgrim standout is entered in just one event this weekend, and it’s this one. This tells us one thing. This race could turn solo right from the beginning with Bayha taking charge from the gun and continuing with an all-out effort in the final high school race on RI soil of her outstanding career. The meet record is 9:49.40 by La Salle alum Kaylie Armitage in 2019. That might be something she’s aiming for at Saturday’s race. DeFusco (10:18.59), Kaull (10:20.25) and Tighe (10:27.47) are the next three seeds. We’re not expecting them to stay with Bayha, if she should take off from the start, considering the trio will already have a race or two under their belt and may have some tired legs. This might open the door for runners like St. Raphael’s Mackenzie Lickert, who will have fresh legs when the gun is fired. Lickert has a seed of 10:27.71, but ran three seconds faster at the Loucks Games where she ran 10:24.54 at the 3K mark en route to an 11:02.6 for 3,200m.
