It was yet another eventful season for our RI track & field athletes. Throughout the summer months, Ocean State Running will feature some of our most memorable performances during the outdoor campaign. Here we feature La Salle Academy’s Marshall Vernon.
Since the ninth grade, Vernon has proven he’s among our state’s elite when it comes to the distance events. Following a season that saw him capture in the 3,000- and 1,500-meter runs at the indoor state meet, the Rams’ gifted sophomore produced his share of attention-grabbers once the competition switched to the outdoor surface. Just a week after clocking an all-time best of 4:10.63 at BSR Elite Scholastic Mile, Vernon nearly went sub-9 for 3,200m down in New York. In what we consider the highlight of his season, the determined runner finished fifth overall among the region’s best at the prestigious Glenn B. Loucks Games with a PR of 9:01.62. He was the top underclassmen in the race and ran the fastest time by a Rhode Island sophomore at Loucks. Former LSA great DJ Principe held the previous best by a tenth-grader with his 9:15.87 effort from 2014.
