The country’s top track & field athletes will be in Eugene, Ore., in less than two weeks for the Toyota USATF Outdoor Championships.
Former Concord-Carlisle standout Thomas Ratcliffe appears ready to excel at the elite competition (July 31 to Aug. 3), where he’ll toed the line in the 5,000-meter run.
The 27-year-old Ratcliffe, who competes for the Nike Swoosh Track Club, demonstrated his speed on Saturday night with a more than four-second personal best in the 1,500m at the Stumpdown Twilight Invitational in Portland. He won the race by nearly two seconds with a time of 3 minutes, 33.28 seconds. His time ranks him No. 10 in the country this year, based on stats compiled by the USATF.
This weekend’s race is the third quality performance by the Ratcliffe in the last two months. He was third (3:37.58) in the Invitational 1,500m at the Oregon Twilight meet on May 9. The onetime Stanford great also was a bronze medalist in the 5,000m (13:16.56) at the Portland Track Festival in mid June. Ratcliffe owns a best of 13:14 for the 5K.
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Chelmsford’s Gable Gray continues to be at his best during the postseason. The state’s No. 1 javelin thrower unleashed a PR of 214 feet, 8 inches to win his specialty at the American JavFest, held Saturday at East Stroudsburg South High (PA) Memorial Stadium. Gray had the competition to push him. After four throws, he was trailing eventual second-place finisher, Bryson Jacobs, by two feet. Jacobs went into the fifth round with a toss of 209-8 to Gray’s 207-5 effort. The Div. 2 and Meet of Champions winner secured his gold on his next attempt. Jacobs responded with a PR of 211-8. Gray’s previous best prior to JavFest was 208-9, an effort that placed him fourth at the Nike Outdoor Championships.
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For the next few weeks, we will be continuing our Memorable Moments feature here at BSR. From there, we switch right into cross-country mode. Yes, the summer does seem to move at a rapid pace once we hit the July 4 holiday. The competitive portion of the 2025-26 fall campaign kicks off on on Sept. 6 with the MSTCA X-C Relays at Highland Park. We’re adding a few new features to our website this year, including a weekly spotlight highlighting some our top athletes in cross country and track & field, sponsored by New Balance. Moving forward, please don’t ever hesitate to contact us with any ideas you think could enhance our coverage at BSR. Remember, this is YOUR website! Contact us either by sending us comments via our Instagram page or by sending an email to yours truly at smazzone5@gmail.com.
