The inaugural BSR (Bay State Running) Mid-Distance Classic did not disappoint last year with ideal weather conditions and an abundance of top performances. The second annual event, hosted by St. John’s Prep, will be held next Friday. There’s still time to register for meet, but the deadline is coming up fast. Registration closes on Wednesday, April 17 at midnight on athletic.net. The meet, which features the 400m, 800m, mile and shot, is open to Rhode Island entries. Thus far, La Salle Academy and Bay View Academy will be making the trip.
Speaking of BSR events, don’t forget the BSR Elite Scholastic Mile on May 3. Last year’s inaugural event, which features invite-only boys’ and girls’ mile races, was a huge success. In the boys’ race, St. Raphael Academy grad Devan Kipyego led seven runners under 4 minutes, 11 seconds. Kipyego held off New Hampshire’s Byron Grevious of Phillips Exeter Academy by just a quarter of a second with a time of 4:07.60. Newton South’s Amelia Everett broke the tape in the girls’ race with a time of 4:47.97. This year’s meet is shaping up to be another classic with several of the region’s finest committed for next month’s race,
Both meets will be live streamed on BSR’s YouTube page.
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It’s Boston Marathon weekend with the 128th edition of the storied race on Monday.
Among the festivities are the high school and middle school races of the BAA Invitational Mile on Saturday, an event that includes athletes from schools of all the towns and cities along the Marathon route. The top entries in the girls’ HS race are Brookline teammates Audrey Seeger and Lucia Werner. Seeger was third in the mile at the Meet Of Champions this past winter with a PR of 4:59.79. Werner has a best of 5:05.63 from the Bay State Conference Championships on Feb. 7. She was fourth in the two mile at the MOC.
Boston Latin’s Colin Fisher leads the boys’ field. Fisher, who has a 4:18 best, was the Div. 2 outdoor two-mile champion last year. Wellesley’s Eli Merritt, who was sixth at the MOC last spring with a PR of 4:20.43, is the No. 2 seed. This should be a very competitive race. Six other runners in the field have gone 4:29 or faster – Wellesley’s Max Hoffman (4:23), Brookline’s Pablo Tejedor (4:23), Newton South’s Nathan Hamilton (4:26), Natick’s Jacob Tobin (4:25), Newton North’s Gabe Grove (4:26), and Natick’s Sean Fleming (4:29.0).
As for storied 26.2-mile race on Patriots’ Day, this year a record 33,000 applications were received by the Boston Athletic Association (BAA), surpassing the previous mark of 31,458 from 2019. We glanced through the MA entries and two names stuck out right away, former high school standouts Sarah Barry and Andrew Cabral. The 22-year-old Cabral, who competed for the U.S. Naval Academy, starred for Seekonk High where he earned numerous accolades in cross country and track. Barry, 24, was a onetime distance ace for Newton South.
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Former Belmont Hill standout James Donahue, a sophomore at Virginia, started off his first outdoor season as a collegian on a high note a few weeks ago. Competing in the 1,500-meter run at the Raleigh Relays on March 28, Donahue clocked a PR of 3:40:27, a time that ranks No. 4 in the country right now.
Nashoba Regional alum Freddy Collins, a sophomore at Boston University, was tenth overall in the 5,000m where he was timed in an all-time best of 13:45.27, which is No. 19 in the rankings. Collins is coming off an indoor season where he had bests of 8:02 for the 3K and his first sub four-minute mile, a 3:59.59 effort at the BU DMR Challenge.
Former Acton Boxborough star and Yale grad Samantha Friborg, a graduate student at Washington, continues to excel in the middle distance events. She was eighth in the 800m at the Stanford Invitational (march 29-30) with a time of 2:05.69.
Stanford senior Lucy Jenks, a onetime star at Newton South, was third in her heat of the 5,000m where she was timed in 15:52.94.
