adidas Nationals is the third national meet held in the last week with New Balance and Nike preceding it the previous weekend. However, Rhode Island athletes made their way down to Virginia Beach to compete. Rhode Island throwers specifically continued to show their dominance across the country with several earning All American Honors.
In the Boys Weight Throw Championship, senior Kareem Jefferies-Hazard of Central took runner-up honors with a throw of 61-08.25. Close behind was another senior, Ali Abdul-mumin of Classical, who threw 61-04.75 for 4th. Junior Archer Lesser, senior Oluwatosin Akinsulire, and senior John Thorpe of Classical took 12th, 13th, and 15th while senior Ryan Hazard of South Kingstown took 14th overall.
In the Girls Weight Throw Championship, junior Aviana Rezendes of Classical took 6th overall after tying with her teammate senior Rebecca Toure of Classical. The two throwers from Providence threw 41-08.5. Also, junior Latifah Hafez-Soulaiman, sophomore Susan Adekunle, and senior Prudence Chike-Okeke placed 10th, 11th, and 15th in the championship event.
On the distance side, junior Caroline Jankowich of Classical took 5:14.51 in the National Elite 1 mile run for 4th. Her teammate, sophomore Grace Doyle, ran 5:28.53 to nearly equal her PR from the New England Championships.
On Friday night, the Classical Boys ran in the DMR Championship. Senior Nicholas Mott led off with a 3:18.35 1200, then passed off to senior Javier Gomez who split 51.11 for 400. Their 800 leg, senior Sam Healey, split 2:04.24 and handed off to senior Cooper Michaud. He closed the relay out with a 4:29.39. They placed 5th overall out of 6 teams in the competition.
On Sunday, the Classical Girls SMR team competed in the SMR Championship. They placed 2nd overall just missing their season-best running 4:16.18. Junior Caroline Jankowich split 2:22 to get the Purple into second place on the anchor leg.
In the Boys Championship 800, senior Kaden Kluth of Portsmouth was slated to run the 800. The American University commit sat back in the race splitting just 57.3 before running a negative split of 57 flat to take the lead and win on the final lap. His last 200 was a blistering 27.9. This was barely off his PR of 1:54.13 from BU Last Chance and earned Kluth his second All American honors in the past two weekends as well as his first national title. His teammate Colby Fahrney placed 4th overall in the long jump with a 21-09.00 second jump.
In the Boys Championship Shot put, senior Ryan Hazard also earned All-American honors placing 6th with a final throw of 53-05.25.