“Around the Oval’’ His is second-fastest time posted by a R.I. runner
By BOB LEDDY R.I. Track & Field Foundation Correspondent 12 Feb. - - Mike Marsella, Chariho High’s distance man nonpareil, Saturday night added another chapter to his already-storied running career. Running in the prestigious Millrose High School mile on the Armory Track Center’s banked oval, the
Charger senior finished second in a field of a dozen of the country’s best prep milers. His time was 4 minutes, 14.68 seconds (= 3:55.6 @ 1500 meters). Marsella entered the race seeded second. Top-seeded Zevon Watkins, of Liverpool, N.Y., won with a time of 4:13.83.
“I think he was mildly disappointed,’’ said Charger coach Bill Habarek. “He didn’t get off to a great start. He had to maneuver around and about, and that took a lot of effort. He wanted to go out a bit harder.’’
Marsella, who is bound for the University of Virginia in the fall, becomes the ninth Rhode Island boy to run the Millrose. (The one local female entry was La Salle’s Jeanne Mack). Marsella’s 4:14.68 ranks as the second-fastest Millrose clocking of those from the Ocean State. In 1989, St. Raphael’s Andrew Butler, also placing second, clocked 4:14.21. The last time a local runner appeared at a Millrose mile was in 2009, when two East Greenwich distance men - Mark Feigen and Nick Ross - toed the line in New York. Feigen finished third that year, Ross eighth.
At the quarter, Marsella was 1:03.1, and in third position. He went through the 800 in the lead at 2:06.3, and maintained that position until Watkins passed him.
“This was like the other race,’’ Habarek said, referring to the New Balance Games mile last month on the Armory track (a qualifier for Millrose), in which Watkins prevailed at the tape: 4:14.52, to Marsella’s 4:15.27. “Mike had done all the work there, too. But it’s all part of the experience.’’
OVAL NOTES: Two former track and cross country All-Staters have been inducted into the Westerly High School’s Athletic Hall of Fame. Kim (Crowley) Friend, and Emily (Anderson) Lynch both excelled as distance runners on the state level. Crowley, a 1999 graduate, was a two-time All-Stater in the 1500 meters outdoors, and an All-State harrier. Anderson was an outdoor 1600-meter New England champion, a four-year cross country All-Stater, and a champion indoors in the 1000 and 1500. Anderson, Class of 2002, was a standout runner while at URI.
