A water pit, hay bales, and live music!
If you’re a true cross-country runner, does it get any better than this?
Of course not.
That’s exactly what’s in store for participants at this Saturday’s inaugural MARSHVegas Classic.
Presented by Marathon Sports and New Balance, this weekend’s event will mark New England’s first Euro-style high-school cross-country race. The looped course at the Marshfield Fairgrounds features all the classic elements—plus a few surprises. It’s a race designed to test the wicked, while also promising to be wicked fun.
The meet will feature six races – a pair of boys’ and girls freshmen, junior varsity and varsity races. The frosh races will cover two-kilometers (1.2 miles). The JV and Varsity races will be 5K. In addition to the races and the live music, there will be food trucks on site and New Balance giveaways and activations.
Thus far 30 teams have registered for this unique high school event and there’s room for more. Registration, which is done on Athletic.net, closes at noon on Wednesday. The meet is sanctioned by the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association (MIAA) for schools from Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Vermont, New York and New Hampshire.
Championship plaques will be given to the top two teams in the Varsity races, along with plaques for the top five individual finishers and ribbons for the top 15. Finisher Medals will be awarded for the top 15 in the JV and frosh races.
Click HERE to register.
***
It’s always great to cover the Shawn M. Nassaney Memorial Invitational. In the past, our schedule has kept us from making the trip to Bryant University for this annual event, which honors the former Saint Raphael Academy and Bryant runner who tragically lost his life in the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
This weekend, however, we had an opening in our schedule—and we took full advantage by attending the 25th edition of this popular meet. We posted a story about the event on OSR on Sunday and really enjoyed the opportunity to chat with former high school stars Andrew Frezza (Hendricken) and Haley Oliver (Coventry), who competed in the college races.
We’d also like to congratulate the winners of the inaugural high school races: Jackson Cicchinelli (Mount Hope) and East Greenwich for the boys, and Kristen Fountaine (Cranston West) and Cranston West for the girls.
***
The Nassaney race wasn’t the only place you could find our RI athletes competing this past weekend. On Saturday, Classical headed to Highland Park in Attleboro for the annual MSTCA X-C Relays. The Purple entered a three-person relay in the Freshmen-Sophomore division of the meet. The trio of Noah Johnson, Gabriel Niederman and Evan Bubier combined for a time of 25:50.37 for the 4.6-mile distance, good for fourth among the 95 relay teams.
Well done, guys!
Also on Saturday, a few of our schools required three modes of transporation to reach their destination – car, boat and bus. Taking the ferry to Martha’s Vineyard for the school’s 18th annual Vineyard XC Invitational were Saint Raphael Academy, Barrington and East Greenwich.
Four-time defending champion Barrrington couldn’t increase its total for five. Still, the Eagles managed to muster a second-place finish behind evential winner Catholic Memorial with 58 points. East Greenwich was third with 89.
The Eagles’ Colby Napolitano was the top finisher, placing sixth overall with a time of 16:44.14. Also securing top 10 placements were East Greenwich’s Jeremiah Moon (eighth, 16:51.34), and Barrington’s Neal Bansal (ninth, 16:53.62).
Barrington was third among 13 teams in the girls’ varsity race. Evelyn Lefort was seventh for the Eagles with a 19:56.12 clocking. The Saints’ Mackenzie LIckert was fifth at 19:44.88.
