We’re not going to lie. It’s been a nice break in between seasons for us here at Ocean State Running.
In the same respect, we miss our weekly coverage of meets and all the great happenings by our track & field athletes and we’re eager to back to our steady routine. Thankfully, we’ll get our wish soon. The competition started on Monday, April Fools Day (we’re not kidding), with the first meets of the dual-meet season. On Saturday, we have our first state-wide meet with the 56th annual Knights of Columbus Relays.
Here’s a few things that’s been on our mind so far…
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Let’s start with the Knights of Columbus Relays, to be held at Mount Pleasant’s Conley Stadium. Along with its signature 4xMile races, the meet also features a Freshmen Mile, Special Olympics 4x400m and Hammer Throw competition. This meet has been a tradition for more than five decades. Heck, even yours truly competed in this staple event. It’s the perfect way to kick off the outdoor season and also potentially earn some early-season qualifiers for the national meets at the end of the season. This year, Marathon Sports and HOKA has come on board as one of the sponsors and will be selling T-shirts throughout the day. If you haven’t done so already, registration is still open until Wednesday at 6 p.m. So far, more than two dozen schools have registered, including top squads from neighboring Massachusetts. To register, just click HERE.
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With success against national competition often comes invites to some elite meets throughout the country. West Warwick’s gifted sisters Lisa and Xenia Raye will be heading to South Carolina the weekend of April 12-13 to participate in the All-American Track Classic. The meet attracts top competition from throughout the east coast. Lisa is entered in the 100-meter dash and the 200m, while Xenia will answer the gun in the 100m and the 400m. Both are coming off hugely-successful indoor campaigns. Lisa, who won three events at the State Meet, was a runner-up in both the 60m and the 200m at the Nike Indoor Nationals. She also set state marks in the 55m (6.82), 60m (7.31), 200m (23.53) and the 300m (38.74). Xenia was second in the 55m and the 300m at the states. She broke seven seconds in the 55m by taking second to her sister at the New England’s with a time of 6.95. in the 100m, the Raye siblings will be matched up against North Carolina’s Dana Wilson, who was second against a star-studded field at the recent Raleigh Relays with a nation-leading 11.31. The current meet record at the All-American Track Classic is 11.30.
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Speaking of the Raleigh Relays, the Ocean State was well represented at this past weekend’s meet.
Portsmouth Abbey alum Margot Appleton, a junior at Virginia, captured the 5,000m with a time of 15:18.21. Syracuse junior Olivia Joly (North Kingstown) was 88th overall in 16:51.38.
Portsmouth’s Kaden Kluth, a sophomore at American University, was fifth overall in 800m with an outdoor best of 1:49.09.
In the 5K, Butler junior Jack McMahon (Hendricken) was 51st at 14:09.51. Another Hawk alum, Luke Henseler, a senior at Pittsburgh, clocked 29:19.30 in the 10K to take 43rd overall.
Finishing among the top 10 the hammer were Virginia sophomore John Fay (Hendricken) in third with a toss of 224-5 and Duke freshman Christian Toro (Lincoln) at 209-11, good for ninth overall.
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The Stanford Invitational this past weekend featured some solid performances from a couple of former high school standouts. Iowa State freshmen Devan Kipyego (Saint Raphael Academy) opened up his outdoor season by winning Section 5 of the 1,500m in 3:51.16. Kipyego sealed the deal with a blistering 55 seconds for his final 400m. Former La Salle great Joseph dos Reis, a senior at Wisconsin was ninth in Section 1 of the 1,500m (3:45.82) and fifth in Section 4 of the 800m (1:51.42).
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Marathon Sports and HOKA will be sponsoring two meets In MA in the next two months – the second annual St. John’s Prep Mid-Distance Classic on April 19 and the second annual BSR Elite Scholastic Mile.
The SJP Mid Distance Classic, held at the Danvers school at 4 p.m., features the 400m, 800m, Mile and Shot. The deadline to register is April 15 at 8 p.m.
The invite-only BSR Elite Scholastic Mile will include some of the top milers in the region. At last year’s meet. Kipyego led seven runners under 4:11 with a winning time of of 4:07.60. Among Rhode Islanders that have committed so far to the May 5 event are La Salle’s Marshall Vernon and Saint Raphael’s Rory Sullivan.
