A record-setting boys track result to report, courtesy of former Journal sports writer Bob Leddy:

The Hope High boys’ 4x200-meter relay team placed first, and set a new Rhode Island record for the event Tuesday at the Eastern States Track Championships at the Armory Track & Field Center, New York City. The foursome of Matt Washington, Winston Smith, Kevin Morgan and Joao Moreno clocked 1 minute, 29.72 seconds, breaking the previous mark of 1:30.91, which was set by the same Blue Wave quartet at the Yale Invitational meet in January.

Posted by Carolyn Thornton at 3:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

This weekend is the high school wrestling championships, and projo.com wants to post your photos of the event.

On Saturday, our photographers will be shooting our own photo gallery from the final day of the championships. Beginning tonight, you'll be able to post yours as well. Go to http://www.projo.com/highschool to post your wrestling photos.

Posted by Mike McDermott at 1:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Boston Globe has a sad story today about 15-year-old Justina Langone of Boston Latin Academy, who spent the entire winter season as an accomplished swimmer and as goalie on the school's girls ice hockey team. Unbeknownst to her (until now), playing two sports in the same season is against Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association rules. So now both teams on which she competed might have to forfeit their seasons; in the meatime, Langone has been suspended from both squads.

You can forgive a high school freshman for not knowing the state's rules, but what about the athletic department? The athletic director, as well as the swimming and hockey coaches, all told The Globe that they were unaware of the rule, even though the MIAA spokesman says that it is their responsibility to know.

Posted by Mike McDermott at 11:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Rhode Island High School swim championships, which were postponed this week because of concerns about the roof at the Brown University Smith Swim Center, will now be held on Friday, March 2, and Saturday, March 3, at the University of Rhode Island. This is a change from the original rescheduling plan, which was to hold the meets at Roger Williams University.

Also, the boys and girls competitions will now be held on separate days. The boys championship will be March 2 at 6:30, with a 5:30 warmup. The girls championship will be March 3 at 2 p.m., with a 1 p.m. warm-up.

Posted by Mike McDermott at 10:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The state's boys and girls high school swimmers will have to wait two more weeks to decide their state team and individual champions.

The boys and girls state championships meets had been scheduled for this weekend at Brown University's Smith Swim Center, but on Tuesday Brown closed the swim center because of concerns about facility's roof.

Yesterday Brown athletic department officials informed R.I. Interscholastic League officials that they could not be sure when the swim center would reopen. That sent league officials scurrying to find a new location for the meets.

The only other swimming facilities in the state that are large enough to host the combined championships are the pools at the University of Rhode Island and Roger Williams College, but both of those facilities were unavailable the next two weekends.

So league officials were forced to postpone the event for two weeks. The championship meets are now scheduled for Sunday, March 4, at Roger Williams. The qualifying competition will be held on March 3. Because the Roger Williams facility is not as large as the Smith Center, qualifying may also need to be held on March 2.

Also, the Divisions II and III boys swim championships, originally scheduled tonight at the Roger Williams College, have been postponed because of weather and rescheduled for tomorrow.

- Sports Writer John Gillooly

Posted by Mike McDermott at 3:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The full complement of Interscholastic League events has been postponed tonight, including the Divisions II and III boys swimming championships. The swimming will be held tomorrow at Roger Williams University, with a 6 p.m. warmup and a 7 p.m. start time.

Here are the list of other postponed events; where known, the reschedule date is listed in parentheses.

Boys Basketball
Rogers at Barrington (tomorrow, 7 p.m.)
Juanita Sanchez at Central Falls
Prout at Mount St. Charles (Monday, 7 p.m.)
North Providence at Toll Gate
Tiverton at Mt. Hope (tomorrow, 7 p.m.)
Burrillville at Fatima (Monday, 7 p.m.)

Girls Basketball
South Kingstown at East Greenwich
Pilgrim at Cranston West

Wrestling
East Greenwich at Burrillville (tomorrow, 7 p.m.)
Rogers at West Warwick
North Kingstown at South Kingstown (tomorrow, 5 p.m.)
Mount Pleasant at Lincoln
Barrington at Exeter/West Greenwich (tomorrow, 4 p.m.)
Hendricken at Coventry
Cranston East at North Providence (tomorrow, 7 p.m.)

Posted by Mike McDermott at 1:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Rhode Island Interscholastic League announced earlier today on its Web site that the Boys and Girls State Swim Championships at Brown University have been postponed.

The league was notified that the pool at Brown's Smith Swim Center is not available because of structural concerns and is attempting to secure another site for the state meet.

According to the Web site, further details will be made available as soon as another venue is confirmed.

Posted by Carolyn Thornton at 11:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

If you went to the 2007 National Prep School Invitational this past weekend at URI's Keaney Gym, it would have bought you a stapled packet containing a handful of rosters, with no pictures or biographies. With college assistants from throughout the nation coming to the Ocean State to take a look at some outstanding prep school talent, it was a good case of supply and demand -- the coaches, after all, had to know the name of that kid who wore number 25 and dominated on the boards (a hypothetical).

Posted by Mike McDermott at 2:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

100TH MILLROSE GAMES
BOYS HIGH SCHOOL INVITATIONAL MILE
Friday at Madison Square Garden

1, Jason Weller, Boyertown Area, 4:15.81
2, Kyle Soloff, Morris Hills, 4:17.99
3, Steve Murdock, Shenendehowa, 4:18.14
4, Chris Moen, Walter Johnson, 4:26.32
5, Kevin Gill, Brockton, 4:26.36
6, Ryan McDermott, Chaminade, 4:28.16
7, Andrew Palumbo, Bishop Hendrickson, 4:36.68

Posted by Carolyn Thornton at 11:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

The R.I. Interscholastic League will hold a meeting this afternoon to determine what disciplinary action should be taken as a result of an on-court melee in the final minute of Tuesday night’s Cranston West-Smithfield boys basketball game in Cranston.

With 13 seconds remaining in the game and Smithfield leading 49-40, a fight broke out between a Cranston West player and a Smithfield player as they struggled for control of the ball. Before game officials could separate the two players, others from both teams along with fans from the stands converged on the court.

For about five minutes there were approximately 100 people -- players, non-playing students and adults -- involved in the on-court melee. Cranston School Department event staff workers, along with the coaching staffs of both teams, were able to quell the major portion of the uprising within a few minutes. Several Cranston police officers, who were called to the scene, stabilized the situation and there were no further disturbances.

There were no reported injuries and there were no arrests at the scene. A Cranston School Department official said, however, that the Cranston police are still reviewing a videotape of the game.

Once order was restored, game officials called the game and declared Smithfield the winner. Officials from both schools, Interscholastic League officials and game officials are expected to attend today’s meeting.

-Sports Writer John Gillooly

Posted by Mike McDermott at 11:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Cox Sports Television and Eident Sports Marketing recently announced that it plans to recognize Rhode Island's top athletes, coaches and teams through the creation of the Cox Rhode Island Sports Awards, to be held June 21 at the Providence Performing Arts Center.

They provide more details in this release:

Cox Sports Television, (Cox Ch.3) Rhode Island’s regional sports network, will title sponsor the 2007 Cox RI Sports Awards. Cox Sports TV, in partnership with Eident Sports Marketing, will honor the Ocean State’s best high school scholar athletes from each sport for every season as well as the Team of the Year, Coach of the Year, School Spirit Award and many more. A highlight show of the awards will be broadcast on Cox Sports TV.

“Heralding the talent and accomplishments of Rhode Island athletes has long been the strategic advantage of Cox Sports Television,” said Paul Cronin, vice president and region manager, Cox Communications. “The establishment of the RI Sports Awards is an extension of our commitment to the athletic community, and in particular, those high school athletes who are dedicated to their respective sports, their schools and their communities.”

“The RI Sports Awards are yet another example of exclusive, compelling content you won’t find on any other cable TV provider in the State,” continued Cronin. “Just as we expect from our Lifetime Achievement Award and Breakthrough Athlete of the Year recipients, CST continues to be synonymous with Rhode Island, competition and exclusive, compelling entertainment.”

Tom Mezzanotte, Executive Director of the RIIL, says "The Rhode Island Interscholastic League (RIIL) and its member high schools are extremely excited about the Cox RI Sports Award. Through the years, Cox Sports has been a great advocate and supporter of our athletes and high school sports in general. We are proud to be working with Cox Sports to recognize the achievements of our fine student athletes."

In addition to honoring the high school scholar athletes, the Cox RI Sports Award will award a Lifetime Achievement Award and a Breakthrough Athlete of the Year. These two awards will honor recipients who have ties to the Rhode Island athletic community and best exemplify the Ocean State.

“Eident Sports Marketing is proud to partner with an industry leader in Cox Communications,” said John Mathews, President, Eident Sports Marketing. “We appreciate Cox Communications commitment to high school athletics in Rhode Island and look forward to this great event.”

For more information, please visit www.risportsawards.com.

Posted by Carolyn Thornton at 1:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Fellow North Kingstown seniors Brandon Burns and Siobhan Breagy competed in the Boys' and Girls' Junior Invitational Mile at last weekend's Reebok Boston Indoor Games at the Reggie Lewis Track & Athletic Center.

Breagy finished 13th (5:16.09) in the girls' race, which was won by Danielle Taurov , of Manahawkin, N.J., with a time of 4:52.20.

Burns' time of 4:21.99 was good for 10th place in the 11-runner boys' field. Duncan Phillips, of College Station, Texas, clocked a winning time of 4:09.20.

Breagy took a few moments last weekend to share what it was like to compete in the high-profile event: "Overall the experience of coming here was a great one. I met a bunch of runners from all over the country and I plan on keeping in touch with them. As far as the race went, I felt good for the first 1200 but just didn't have enough to finish it, I guess. The race went out slower than I thought it would, but then picked up really suddenly. I tried to regain contact with the group but it just didn't work out for me. Now I'm off actually to go back to Reggie to try and qualify for the SMR for nationals with my high school teammates. We tried at Brown, but there was some tripping during the race and we obviously didn't run as fast as we could have because of that. So today we're going to the McIntyre Relays back at Reggie. Hopefully I can redeem myself with an 800."

Several Rhode Island high school teams competed in the MSTCA McIntyre Relays that Breagy spoke of, with the following results, provided courtesy of Larry Byrne:
Girls
4x400m -- Westerly (4) 4:05.48
4x800m -- Westerly (5) 9:41.14
SMR -- North Kingstown (3) 4:19.16; Westerly (11) 4:28.99
DMR -- Westerly (2) 12:32.41

Boys
4x200m -- Hope (1) 1:31.36
4x800m -- Westerly (11) 8:24.87; Chariho (15) 8:28.23
SMR -- Westerly (18) 3:54.26
DMR -- Westerly (6) 10:51.06

Posted by Carolyn Thornton at 1:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)