(All photos by RAPHAEL BIEBER)
A few months ago, North Kingstown boys’ head coach Charlie Breagy announced to his team that he would be retiring after the outdoor track season. With his road-race managing business picking up, he felt he wouldn’t be able to dedicate 100 percent to his athletes.
At the R.I. Track & Field Championships on Saturday, his Skippers gave him the perfect going-away present. Overcoming a surprising Classical squad on the final event of the afternoon, North Kingstown won the team crown with a 94-88 victory over the runner-up Purple at Brown Stadium.
Senior Zachery Emrich was among multiple stars for the Skippers, defending his titles in the 400- and 800-meter runs and also anchoring a pair of triumphant relay squads. N.K. also had individual victories from senior Benjamin Stewart in the 300m hurdles and senior Benjamin Rudman in the pole vault.
Add up those valuable points with several other key placements and the Skippers were able to earn their third team crown since 2007.
“They all gave 110 percent,” Breagy said. “(We) knew what we were up against. The thing is you have to give credit to Classical. They came out of nowhere.”
Did they ever.
Classical wasn’t in the mix for the title until midway into the meet. In a quick, few-minute span, the Purple scored a combined 48 points with a pair of 1-2-3 finishes in the 110m hurdles and the triple jump. Senior Abdul-lateff Orulebaja led the brigade in the triple jump with a leap of 46 feet, 3 inches. Junior Nathan Narcisse did the same in the hurdles by breaking the tape in 15.01.
“They ran out of their minds, a special day for them,” Classical coach Bob Palazzo said. “Who goes 1-2-3 in the hurdles, 1-2-3 in the triple? We weren’t supposed to do that. It put us in the game big time.”
“I was a little depressed in the middle of the meet when I heard the hurdles didn’t go as fast as we expected and Classical ran out of their minds and got (24) points and then at the same time got a 1-2-3 finish in the (triple jump) and scored like 50 points in a five-minute span. All of a sudden, they are up to 80 points. I said, we were only planning on scoring 84 points. The 800 was the key.”
In the 800m, Emrich held off La Salle Academy sophomore Jack Salisbury with a time of 1:56.02. Salisbury took the runner-up spot at 1:57.42, but the Skippers claimed the next two with junior Ian Connor grabbing third (1:58.43) and senior Dallin Smith crossing the line in fourth (1:58.53).
The Purple held an 88-84 advantage with one event remaining, the 4x400m relay. Without a team in the event, all the top-seeded Skippers had to do was finish among the top three to solidify the crown.
North Kingstown did just that, taking the guesswork out of the outcome by winning the race with a near state-mark of 3 minutes, 21.59 seconds. Emrich put the exclamation point on the victory with a sub 48-second anchor.
“It’s incredible,” he said. “I can’t even describe it. This is the most nervous I have ever been before a meet. I just kept thinking about it. It just feels great.”
The Brown-bound Emrich finished out his career in grand style. He began by anchoring the Skippers’ 4x800m relay, which edged East Greenwich by .54 with a winning time of 8:00.1. He then out-distanced Mount Pleasant’s talented junior Trevaine Clarke in the 400m with a quick 48.71 clocking to Clarke’s 49.25. With a little more than an hour’s rest, Emrich was back on the track battling the Rams’ Salisbury the final straightaway to earn the 800m title.
“The plan was to sit until 200 (meters) to go,” he said. “I did that but it definitely got a little hairy out there. I pulled through, though.”
Stewart defended his crown in the 300 hurdles by cruising to a new state mark of 38.13. Classical’s Narcisse and Christian Pichardo were second and third, respectively. Rudman took the pole vault by clearing a height of 13-6, a personal best by a foot.
The Skippers also got some needed points from a four-place finish by senior Ben Lee in the high jump (6-2) and a fifth-place effort from junior Mike Toolin in the 3,000 (9:03.29).
“We did have a secret weapon in Mike Toolin,” Breagy said. “He got fifth in the 3,000. Who would have thought N.K. would have scored a guy in the 3K with Hendricken and La Salle and the depth they have. He ran 9:10 about a month ago and I realized he was able to run the 3,000. We got the mileage up a little bit to about 50 miles a week and we got his speed work going and ran him in the 1,500. We saved him for that one pass and he came up big for us.”
La Salle, one of the possible contenders for the crown, placed third in the team scoring with 73 points. Bishop Hendricken was fourth with 67 points.
La Salle’s Sean Greene claimed the high jump title with a height of 6-4. The Rams’ Salisbury held off North Kingstown’s Smith to win the 1,500m in 4:04.49. The Skipper runner was timed in 4:04.69 for second.
The Hawks had two of their athletes earn gold. Senior Colin Tierney was pushed to the limit in the 3,000 by La Salle junior Jake Grundy. Tierney broke the tape in 8:50.17, while Grundy was inches behind in the second at 8:50.72. A tight hamstring forced junior Lee Moses to limp off the track midway into the 100m dash, an event he was the top seed. Moses didn’t go home empty handed, though. He captured the long jump with a season-best distance of 22-9.
In the hammer, Barrington sophomore Bobby Colantonio defeated junior teammate Adam Kelly with a heave of 215-06. Kelly was second at 213-08.
Mount Pleasant’s Randolph Zleh blazed to a winning time of 11.16 in the 100m dash and also anchored the victorious 4x100m relay (42.74). Moses Fofano, a senior from Central, sizzled to a time of 22.40 in the 200m.
Narragansett senior Ethan Wright was first in the javelin, winning the title on his first throw with a distance of 195-07. Rogers senior Garrett Davis took the discus at 141-10.
