Rego, Bouthillette earn gold at New England meet


Last month at the East Coast Invitational, Eliza Rego was edged at the line by Kaleigh Hughes of Neeham High in the championship mile.

The La Salle Academy junior made sure history didn't repeat itself Friday night at the New England Championships.

With a lap remaining in her specialty, Rego broke from a lead pack that included the Massachusetts' runner and Shannon Murdock of Exeter (N.H.) and coasted to a winning time and new meet record of 4 minutes, 52.83 seconds. Murdock overtook Hughes down the final straightaway to finish second at 4:56.38, Hughes secured third at 4:56.77. La Salle junior Karina Tavares crossed the line in fourth with a time of 5:02.37.

Rego admitted Hughes was on her mind when she shifted into gear with 200m left.

“She has a lot of height on me and she has a kick too," said the Ram all-stater, who dipped under the old meet record of 4:54.47 by former La Salle great Molly Keating in 2012. “I figured if I should do it, I should do it then."

Rego was one of two R.I. athletes that earned gold in the regional meet, held at the Reggie Lewis Athletic Center in Boston. In the boys' mile, La Salle swept the top three placements with junior Matt Bouthillette breaking the tape with a winning time of 4:17.25. Sophomore D.J. Principe was second (4:17.77) and senior Dan Paiva placed third (4:18.04).

“Going in we knew we could go 1-2-3 in the race so we set out a race plan and worked out the splits for about a 4:16-4:17," Bouthillette said. “It's awesome to have those guys push me to step my game up a little bit."

La Salle junior Jack Salisbury, the defending mile champion, scratched from the event and competed solely in the 1,000m. Running in the unseeded heat due to his “slow" winning time of 2:39 at the state meet last week, Salisbury won his race easily. He finished with a four-second personal best of 2:31.15 and placed sixth overall.

La Salle senior Sheridan Wilbur was a second-place finisher in the girls' two mile with a season best of 10:40.89. The race was won for the third straight year by Staples junior Hannah DeBalsi, who was timed in a nation No. 1 of 10:26.09

“I am definitely really happy with how the race went today," Wilbur said. “I just wanted to run for a time and hopefully run this race at nationals. All my coach said was try and chase Hannah and see what I can do. I wasn't really sure how fast she was going to run. I am pretty happy with the outcome."

Tommy Sommer of East Greenwich ran a PB of 9:23.64 to place fourth in the boys' two mile. Alva Hicks of Classical, last week's state meet winner in the shot and weight, earned silver in the shot at he NE meet with a distance of 40-11.75.

In the girls' 55m dash, Hope's multiple all-stater Quashira McIntosh was third at 7.15. She also ran a leg on the school's second-place 4x200m relay that combined for a time of 1:42.77.

Here's how a handful of other R.I.athletes fared in the five-hour meet: Coventry senior Jose Santos was fifth in the 300m with a time of 35.67. Hendricken senior Ben Murphy took fifth in the high jump with a leap of 6-5. In the girls' high jump, Narragansett senior Carly Timpson was sixth at 5-3. Barrington senior Adam Kelly was fifth in the shot put with a distance of 53 feet, 9.25 inches. Toll Gate senior Erika Pena placed fifth in the 55m hurdles with a solid time of 8.73.East Providence's Trystan Casey was fifth in the long jump with a distance of 21-7. Cumberland's Maegan Scullin was fifth in the long jump at 17-2.5. The Clippers' Jared Talbert was sixth in the 55m hurdles with a PR of 7.69.