Let’s see, we had the BSR Elite Scholastic Mile, the Weston Twilight Invitational, the Jim Hoar Freshmen/Sophomore Invitational, the Lou Tozzi Freshmen/Sophomore Invitational and the Greater New Bedford Sunset Invitational all during the same weekend. Did we miss any? Obviously, when you have this much going on it makes our job picking the HOKA Athletes Of the Week that much more difficult. We’d like to give a shout out to all our athletes that competed during a very busy, three-day span, especially those that were able to manufacture school records, PR and/or state leaders. It’s starting to get brutal out there. In a good way, of course.
For this week’s honor, we’re going to recognize three different athletes that simply stood out more than the rest. Congratulations to Nashoba Regional’s Caroline Collins, Northbridge’s Marcus Reilly and Westford Academy’s Ryan Kyle, our latest recipients. Collins holds the distinction solely for the girls, while Reilly and Kyle share the honor for boys
For Collins, she certainly had a night to remember at Saturday’s Weston Twilight meet. The Wolves’ senior competed in the mile at Regis College and ran the anchor on her school’s sprint medley relay at Weston High. At both venues, she proved successful. Collins captured the mile with a state-leading time and PR of 4 minutes, 53.17 seconds to edge Westford Academy’s Abigail Hennessey (second, 4:53.32). The gifted runner came back about an hour later with a 2;18 800m anchor, an effort that enabled her to pass Hennessey in the closing stages of the SMR, where Nashoba was timed in a winning 4:18.06, currently No. 5 in the state.
On the boys’ side, we made Reilly and Kyle are co-Athletes of the Week based on their performances over the weekend. Reilly was at Icahn Stadium in New York for the Trials Of Miles. Facing some of the top runners in the country, the Michigan commit finished an outstanding third overall in 4:05.07. That effort comes after taking the bronze three weeks earlier at the Friar Invitational at Providence College where he tied his previous outdoor best of 4:06.12. As for Kyle, he was a double winner at the Weston Twilight Invite, sweeping both hurdle events with state-leaders. The WA junior captured the 110m HH in 14:48 and broke the tape in the 400m IH with a time of 54.74.
