It’s in your blood.
And once it’s there, it rarely leaves.
That’s often the case with high school runners – especially those that made a name for themselves on the local, and sometimes even national, stage.
From a local standpoint, the evidence was clear at the Blessing of the Fleet 10-miler. Collegian and post-collegians, who call the Ocean State their home, filled the top spots at Friday night’s 53rd annual race.
The overall titles belonged to Austin Gabay and Hanna O’Connor. Gabay, a sub four-minute miler and former Duke University and Butler standout, broke from a still large pack around seven miles and crossed the finish line in 50 minutes, 39 seconds. O’Connor, a recent University of Rhode Island grad and Bay View alum, claimed the women’s crown in 1:01.36. She was 49th overall among the 2,809 finishers.
For the men, talk about a who’s who of Rhode Island royalty making the podium. Among the top six finishers were three former high school cross-country champions. Taking runner-up honors was 2018 winner and La Salle grad Joseph dos Reis (50:47 chip time). Bronson Venable, a 2007 champion from Hendricken, was fourth (51:19). Placing sixth was three-time gold medalist (2014-16) and former La Salle great DJ Principe (52:05).
“Honestly, my goal was up in the air,” admitted dos Reis, who starred at Davidson College and URI. “I had tonsillitis last week, so I didn’t run for three days last week. Then I got on antibiotics. I was a little concerned where I’d be. I wanted to try and be up there for the win before I got sick. I got through five miles and said, ‘Let’s just try sticking with it, and go for the win.” Austin just made some really good moves. I just tried to stay on for as long as I could. Being right there, I was really happy for it.”
Gabay made his move on the mostly downhill stretch of Kinney Avenue. It wasn’t sudden—he had to fend off a strong group of challengers, particularly Venable, who traded leads with Gabay before the eventual winner was able to pull away for good.
“We got to mile seven and we started breaking apart,” he said. “That’s when everybody separated. I just tried to hold on basically at that point.
For the 35-year-old Venable, this year has marked one of his best since lacing up his racing flats. Over the last six weeks alone, he’s clocked personal best for 5,000 meters (second, 14:23.2) at the Gaspee Days 5K Road Race on June 14 and four miles (fifth, 19:09.4) at the Arnold Mills Road Race on July 5.
“So far I’ve PR’d in the 5K this year, the mile, five miles, four miles and now today,” he said. “I’m getting older, but I’m aging like fine wine. I think.”
Principe was satisfied with his effort, despite not feeling 100 percent.
“It’s funny, I think looking back, I’ve only run this race two or three times, rarely healthy for it,” he said. “I was like, ‘You know what, I’m healthy enough (today), let’s go have some fun. I figured I would just hang with those guys. They were generous enough to not go super hard the first couple of miles. I was able to hang with them to right around (route) 108. Once we started going by five or six miles, they threw in a surge to stay around five-minute pace and I just didn’t have it. Tried to just hold the body the best I could, ran by myself the last four miles, but it was a good time out there.”
The 26-year-old Principe, who starred at Stanford before finishing his collegiate career at Providence College, is still chasing elite-level goals. For now, it’s more of a month-by-month, year-by-year kind of journey.
“It’s a very fluid point, I’d say,” said Principe, who works as a Financial Analyst for a Cranston-based company and recently joined the Tracksmith elite running club “I had a great stretch over the winter. I was fortunate enough to go up to BU and have some fun pacing, and start getting back into the groove of things. I was training really well coming out of the winter and into the spring. Definitely have as much as an aspiration as I think I can get. It’s transitioning, getting used to working. The body hasn’t been cooperating a ton over the last couple of weeks. I just got to be smart. This is the best time of year to race around here. I just got to enjoy it and get ready for a big push in the fall.”
Rounding out the top 10 at Friday’s race locally were former East Greenwich star Nick Martin (seventh, 53:24), Hendricken alum and 2021 victor Nick Celico (eighth, 54:24) and two-time winner and former Hawk standout and current URI coach Brian Doyle (tenth, 54:36).
In the women’s race, O’Connor finished nearly a minute ahead of second-place finisher, Olivia Joly of East Greenwich.
“I’ve run this race every year so far,” she said. “I look forward to it every year. Last year I ran around 62 (minutes), so we kind of wanted to break that 60-minute barrier this year. We got close to it. But I had a lot of fun out there.”
From the starting line at the Narragansett Pier School to the finish near The Towers along the coastline, O’Connor was never seriously challenged. She ran the first, downhill mile on South Pier Road around 5:40 and settled into a consistent pace from there.
“We got out kind of hot. We saw that first mile around 5:40 and got a little scared, but I held on,” said O’Connor, who ran alongside good friend and Hendricken alum Dylan Manning (50th, 1:01.37). “I was the first woman all the way through. It was kind of nice to hear the crowd all the way through. It felt good.”
Joly, a former North Kingstown all-stater and recent Syracuse grad, finished in 1:02.28 (55th overall). She was happy and pleasantly surprised with her performance on a hot night for racing.
“This is my favorite race ever,” she said. “I didn’t know what I was going to do. I haven’t really been training. I’ve just been running four times a week since graduating, just because I love it. It went really well. I think I’m going to start getting into it. I’m excited.”
Other former RI high school stars among the top women’s finishers were former Coventry standout Haley Oliver in tenth (91st overall, 1:06.11) and Toll Gate alum Sophie Maynard at 11th (94th overall, 1:06.19).
