This past weekend was a big one for several athletes.
And it wasn’t just at our second state qualifier of the season on Saturday — the annual Sgt. Brian St. Germain Invitational – where a few meet records were set and a longstanding state mark in the long jump was broken.
The Ocean State also had a few of its star performers matching up against some of the top regional and national athletes at the prestigious Glenn D. Loucks Games in New York.
Sean Gray accomplished what he set out to do by establishing a new state record in the 3,200-meter run. Gray finished second overall with a time of 8 minutes, 50.76 seconds. He was just over a second behind winner Ryan Sykes, who was timed in 8:49.71.
Gray led for most of the race before being passed by Sykes with about 200 meters remaining. The Portsmouth senior was well under his previous best of 9:04.27 for the rarely contested 3,200m distance, which he ran at last year’s Loucks Games. He also erased the 2016 state mark of 8:51.23, set by former La Salle Academy standout Matt Bouthillette.
New York’s Ben Berman, the top seed, scratched from the race due to other commitments. After talking with Sykes about sharing pacing duties to ensure a fast time, Gray realized he would have to take it upon himself to pace.
The Virginia commit opened with a 64.7-second split for his first 400 meters, hit the mile mark at 4:27 and ran negative splits on the way home, including a 61-second final lap.
“(Sykes) was not feeling his best. He told me that for some reason he was not super confident in being able to hold pace if we traded off leads,” Gray said. “I just decided to take the lead from the gun and go for a fast time. The first lap was exactly what I wanted. The second and third laps were a little slow, but I was back on to 67 (seconds) per quarter after that. I closed well. I just got passed the last 200 (meters).”
The next venture for the Portsmouth standout is the BSR Elite Scholastic Meet, where he will line up against 12 of the best milers in the region. Gray admitted his race at Loucks has given him an added boost of confidence.
“It boosts it a lot. Being able to run a time like this solo really shows what kind of fitness I am in and shows I’m ready to run some fast times the next couple of weeks,” he said. “I feel like now maybe under 4:08 (at the BSR race), maybe between 4:08-4:10. It’s going to be really fun with all the fast guys in the race.”
Speaking of fast times, that’s what Moses Brown’s Skyler Maxwell accomplished with a victory in the 400m. The Quakers’ multiple all-stater blazed to a PR of 55.89. Maxwell also competed in the 200m where she was timed in another best of 25.23. Saint Raphael’s Francesca Justin was right behind with a PR of 25.25.
In the girls’ 3,200, the Saints’ Mackenzie Lickert dipped under 11 minutes by clocking 10:59.03 for 14th overall.
