The first big weekend of the indoor track & field season is here with Rhode Island athletes scattered at three different meets.
Right here in the Ocean State we have two meets. Athletes throughout the region will be at the University of Rhode Island's Mackal Field House for the annual Rhody Track & Field Classic and in the capital city it's the World Trophy Invitational at the Providence Career and Technical Academy Field House. MileSplit RI will be at both locations and will provide LIVE results of the World Trophy meet.
On Friday and Saturday, some of the top athletes from the northeast region will be inside Leverone Field House for the 48th annual Dartmouth Relays. This event will be live-streamed from start to finish by FloTrack and will be available to MileSplit Universal subscribers, which adds to MileSplit's impressive lineup of over 80 events live this indoor season!
Rhode Island will be sending several athletes capable of placing high (or winning) at Dartmouth. La Salle's DJ Principe, who on Saturday clocked the nation's fastest time for the mile with his 4:04.47 effort at a BU Mini Meet, is entered in three events. He'll be aiming for former teammate Jack Salisbury's state mark in the 1,000-meter run when he toes the line around 1 p.m. on Saturday. Salisbury's R.I. mark is 2:28.40, which he did to capture the individual title at the New England Championship. (RI Indoor Records).
La Salle's Matt Bouthillette leads Cumberland's Ben Drezek in last year's Distance Medley Relay. The Rams set the current meet record with a winning time of 10:18.28. a nation No. 1 at the time.
The Rams and Principe are also entered in the Distance Medley and 4x800m relays. The DMR established the meet record at Dartmouth last year with a time of 10:18.28, another mark that could be in jeopardy this weekend. That race will take place on Friday around 7 p.m.
Taking a quick glance at this weekend's entries other top athletes scheduled to compete are Bishop Hendricken's Harry Antone (600m), Barrington's Mars Bishop (Mile), La Salle's Max DiMuccio (Mile) and Joseph Dos Reis (Mile), Cumberland's Ben Drezek (Mile), Toll Gate's Nikolas Reygades (800m), La Salle's Sam Coleman (55m, 300m) and West Warwick's Ivan Goretoy (weight).
Among the girls, some of the top seeds are Portsmouth's Nikki Merrill (800m), Barrington's Katie Zitzmann (800m), Portsmouth's Elizabeth Sullivan (1,000m), La Salle's Emily Kane (Mile), La Salle's Grace Connolly (2 Mile), Ponaganset's Gianna Rao (weight) and Toll Gate's Ani Armenakyan (weight).