Rhode Island athletes were certainly at their best at the New England Championships with several earning spots on the podium at this past weekend’s meet. For this week’s HOKA Athletes of the Week, we’re choosing two of several others that could easily have earned this week’s honor. Congratulations to Moses Brown’s Eli Zeigler and West Warwick’s Lisa Raye, our male and female recipients.
(Photo by Sterling Vernon @rhodeandtrack)
Zeigler didn’t have the top placement among our RI athletes on Saturday, but he did have the biggest improvement from his previous best when he crossed the line in sixth place for the 1,000-meter run. The Quaker senior registered a four-second PR with his time 2:31.23.
As for Raye, she was the only R.I., athlete to strike gold at the New England’s, and she did it twice by defending her crowns in the 55m and 300m dashes. In the short sprint, the West Warwick sophomore smashed her own state record with a winning time and nation No. 6 of 6.82. Raye came back later and broke another state mark in the 300m where she blazed to a triumphant 38.74. That was more than a tenth of a second faster than the eight-year-old record of 38.86 by former Classical star May Stern.
