It’s Preview Time!
With the outdoor track & field season licking off, it’s time to spotlight the top athletes who could dominate this spring. We’ve based our projections on performances from the 2025 outdoor season, results from this past winter campaign, and some inside knowldege.
Here we feature the girls’ sprinting events, which include the 100=meter dash, 200m and 400m.
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100m
Had she not graduated early to begin her collegiate career at the University of Georgia, this would have been the final curtain call for West Warwick’s Lisa Raye. Without the multiple state and national champion- and her sister, Xenia Raye – like the indoor season, the playing field opens up a bit.
But not by much.
Mount Hope’s Thea Jackson, who placed third behind Lisa and Xenia at last year’s State Meet, was dominant against Rhode Island competition in the 55m dash this past winter. She went unbeaten in-state, posting a personal best of 7.16 at the Class A Championships and backing it up two weeks later with a state title.
Jackson enters the spring season as the early favorite, carrying a 12.07 PR from her victory at the Sgt. Brian St. Germain Invitational. A sub-12 performance feels well within reach this season—and if she hits that mark at States, she’ll be very tough to beat.
Still, Jackson won’t have an easy path.
The next five finishers from last year’s outdoor state championships – Moses Brown’s Kendra Satine (fourth), Hope’s Zariyah Brown (fifth), Ponaganset’s Lillian Racine (sixth), North Kingstown’s Ellie Gagnon (seventh), and St. Raphael’s Francesca Justin (eighth) – all return and are coming off strong indoor campaigns
Satine, who posted a best of 12.21 at the state meet, matched her fourth-place finish in the 55m at the indoor championships. Brown, owner of a 12.44 best, may focus more on the 400m and 200m after placing second in the 400m (PR 56.58) and third in the 200m (25.21) last spring. But you never know. She experienced the best season of her career during indoor, winning the 300m and taking runner-up honors in the 55m.
Racine, Gagnon, and Justin ran personal bests in the 100m between 12.52 and 12.68 in 2025 and should all improve this spring, putting themselves firmly in the mix.
200m
The competition in this event should be tight. Six sprinters who broke 27 seconds last spring are back in the field.
We’re giving the slight edge to Hope’s Zariyah Brown, who placed third in this event last spring behind the Raye sisters.
But only slightly.
The senior showcased her strength this winter, capturing her first state crown with a victory in the 300m and then running PR of 40.05 to place second in in her specialty at the New England Championships. In the 200m, she surged to an all-time best of 25.15 at New Balance Nationals.
St. Raphael’s Francesca Justin was right there with her throughout the season. She finished second in the 300m at the state meet and dipped under 25 seconds in the 200m by season’s end, clocking 24.99 at the Rising Youth Championships in early March. As a ninth-grader last year, Justin was sixth in the 200m at the states.
Others that we expect will make an impact are Chariho’s Lidia Taber, Barrington’s Kate Pearse, La Salle freshman Torri Charello-Ingegneri and Pearse, just to name a few. In her inaugural high school season,
Charello-Ingegneri was fourth in the 300m at the indoor states. She also ran legs on the Rams’ second-place 4x200m and 4x400m squads.
Taber, who was third last spring in this event, clocked a best of 26.15 at the adidas Track Nationals last June.
Pearse, who ran a PR of 26.73 last spring, will likely focus more on the 400m. She was third at last year’s states.
400m
This event could get interesting.
We could see two runners dip under 56 seconds this spring with top returnees Skyler Maxwell of Moses Brown and Hope’s Zariyah Brown. With personal bests of 56.45 (indoor) and 56.58 (outdoor), respectively, it feels more like a matter of when, not if. Will it happen at the State Meet? Probably not.
Maxwell was red-hot this indoor season, particularly in the 600m, where she defended her state title and captured the New England Championship with a nearly two-second PR of 1:31.97. She’s expected to focus primarily on the 800m this spring, an event in which she placed second last year with a PR of 2:11.37.
That said, we could still see Maxwell and Brown go head-to-head in the 400m at the Central Division Championships. Last year, they finished 1-2, with Maxwell taking the title.
If Maxwell is not in the field at States, Brown becomes the clear early favorite. She placed second behind Xenia Raye last spring with her current best of 56.58 and showed strong form indoors, clocking 56.80 at New Balance Nationals.
Pearse, who finished third last year in 57.75, also can’t be ignored.
Above photo by Sterling Vernon of @rhodeandtrack.
