The City of Brotherly Love will be the destination this weekend for a handful of Rhode Island teams and athletes as they make the six-hour trip to Franklin Field for the 130th Penn Relays Carnival.
The three-day meet, held Thursday through Saturday, could set the tone for the Ocean State in several events moving forward. It also has the potential to be record-breaking, with at least three state marks within reach.
The boys long jump on Friday will feature indoor New Balance Nationals champion Jalen Moseley of La Salle Academy. The Rams junior will compete in a field of 17 athletes, including international talent from Jamaica, the Bahamas and Spain. It will be Moseley’s outdoor debut, What better stage than before thousands at Penn.
Moseley surpassed 24 feet three times during the indoor season, including a best of 24-3. If he delivers another big performance, which he often does, the state’s oldest record could fall. The current mark of 24-0.5 was set by Moses Brown’s Dan Blount in 1936.
In the Championship 3K during Distance Night on Friday, multiple state champion Marshall Vernon will take on some of the nation’s best. Like Moseley, it will be his first competition of the outdoor season. The three-time indoor 3,000-meter champion ran a personal best of 8:21.79 at the John Thomas Terrier Classic in January. The state standard remains a hand-held 8:16.6, set by La Salle’s DJ Principe in 2017, with Saint Raphael’s Devan Kipyego running an automatically-timed 8:20.52 in 2022.
Bishop Hendricken is entered in one of Rhode Island’s traditionally strong events – the Championship of America Distance Medley Relay. The Hawks’ quartet of David Hayes, Andrew McCarthy, Fred Russell and Colby Flynn will look to break 10 minutes and challenge the state record of 10:00.1 set by La Salle a decade ago.
Hendricken enters with momentum after breaking the indoor state record in March, placing fifth at New Balance Nationals in 10:08.14. That performance suggests the Hawks could not only go sub-10, but contend for a podium finish.
La Salle also has two relays capable of rewriting the record books. In the 4×100-meter relay, Jackson Alves, Garrett Giroux-Pezzullo, Antonio Bearden and Moseley will target Central’s state record of 41.86.
In the 4×400, the Rams’ lineup of Abrahim Ghamrawi, Bearden, Eamon O’Brien and Giroux-Pezzullo will aim to improve on La Salle’s own state mark of 3:14.56, set at last year’s New Balance Nationals.
Ocean State Running will add to this article.
