Chariho's Marsella Places Second in High School Millrose Mile
By Mary (Serdakowski) Boggs Hepstrack.com
Chariho's Mike Marsella competed in the High School Boys Invitational Mile at the Millrose Games on Saturday night in New York City and placed second overall with a time of 4:14.68. The second place finish is the best finish for any Rhode Islander in the Millrose Games history and is a new personal best for Marsella. In 2009, Mark Feigan of East Greenwich (now at Columbia University) had finished third in the event.
When Marsella was informed of his time and how his performance compared to previous Rhode Islander performances, he calmly said, "Well, that's nice but I had wanted to win the event." Before the race, he had written "Millrose Mike" on the inside of his left wrist to help motivate himself that evening.
With one lap left to go, it looked like he would become "Millrose Mike".
The start was a double waterfall start as eleven boys lined up for the race. After the gun went off, nearly all of the runners rushed for the front and pushed each other around for position. Marsella was trapped in the back at the end of the two-turn stagger (approximately 150 yards into the race). Marsella needed to spend a lot of energy to run around the other competitors in lanes 2 and 3 in order to get back up near the front of the pack. By the quarter-mile mark, Marsella had made it up to third place.
Like his tactic in the New Balance Games held on the same track at the end of January, Marsella took over the lead by the end of the third lap and began to try and separate himself from the pack. He went through the half-mile in approximately 2:06.4, with his future University of Virginia teammate Connor Rog (Fairfield Prep) right behind him for second place.
Marsella went through the three-quarter of a mile mark around 3:12 and Rog had dropped back into third place.
With one lap to go, Zavon Watkins of Liverpool, who outkicked Marsella at the New Balance Games mile qualifier, and another runner surged pass Marsella, and Marsella got bumped by one of their arms. Marsella managed to get back into second place and began his kick to chase down Watkins. Marsella managed to close down the 20 foot gap that Watkins got at the beginning of the lap, but it wasn't enough as Watkins won in 4:13.86, less than a second in front of Marsella.
Marsella commented that while he is happy with the new personal best, he was hoping to run faster. "I wouldn't say it was my best race. A [personal best] is good, it sets me up nicely. I wanted to break 4:10 for indoors. Hopefully I will be able to do that at the Brooks PR in Seattle," Marsella said after the race. The current indoor state record for the mile is 4:08.47, set by Westerly's Andrew Springer in 2009.
Other plans for his indoor season include a return trip to New York City to compete at the National Scholastic Indoor Championships (NSIC) in both the mile and at least one relay. The Chariho 4x800 meter relay team with Dan Kilcoyne, Drew Turner, Bryce Kelly, and Marsella recently set a New England record of 7:50.25, which was ranked 3rd in the country going into this past weekend. Coach Bill Haberek said that the team has the potential to run even faster. The Chargers also look to have a 4xMile team entered into NSIC as "We have four guys who can run a mile" said Coach Haberek.
Until then, the Chargers will be focusing on the Rhode Island State Indoor Championships, which will be held this upcoming Sunday. After the state championships, Marsella is planning to compete in the Brooks PR Invitational in Seattle, Washington on February 26th. The NSIC is scheduled for March 9th and 10th at the New Balance Armory in New York City.
