PORTSMOUTH — Sean Gray’s only a sophomore, but he’s already proven himself to be one of the best runners in Portsmouth High School’s history.

On Saturday during the Rhode Island Indoor Track and Field Championships at Providence Career & Technical Academy, Gray sliced nearly 15 seconds off the school’s previous 3,000-meter run record by clocking a time of 8:45.66 to take second place. The previous record of 9:00.11 was set by Kaden Kluth in 2022.

Gray took the race out fast right from the start, building a 10-meter lead on the entire field for the first 10 laps. He started to feel the fatigue coming into the last few laps, but continued to grind. The winner was another sophomore, Marshall Vernon of La Salle, who clocked a time of 8:40.65.

Gray’s time was a personal best by over 15 seconds and qualified him for the 5K at the 36th New England Indoor Track & Field Championships on March 2 in Boston, as well as the New Balance Indoor Nationals, also in Boston, from March 7-10.

“Before the race, I was talking with Marshall and he said he wanted to take it easier and make it a championship-style race, but I let him know that I was going for the New Balance Indoor Nationals standard for the two mile,” Gray said afterward.

“I felt great going into the race, with a couple great workouts the week before. My legs felt great before the race and that translated. The plan was to get out fast in the first 1,000 meters and hold my pace through the second 1,000 meters, then get a little faster each lap on the final 1,000 meters. I felt like it was a great race, but I also left some in the tank for one more lap. I am ready for my next meet at New Englands to try to improve my mark and then for Nationals,” he said.

Other results

The PHS boys’ team placed ninth as a team, with 20 points. The girls came in 25th place, with six points.

Other PHS athletes who placed in the top six on Saturday to qualify them for the New Englands were: 

• Landon Rodrigues, fourth in the boys’ 55-meter hurdles with a time of 7.91 seconds (Rodrigues opened the hurdle trials with a sub-8 second time for the first timer. He also had a great effort in the 4x200-meter relay.)

• Aidan Chen, sixth in the boys’ high jump with a best effort of 6 feet even

• Claire Hook, Sonia Staroscik, Emily DeConto, and Emilie Bobola, sixth place in the girls’ 4x200-meter relay with a time of 1:51.55 

Other top 10 finishers were:

• Nate DeConto, Nick Spaner, Will Kitzmiller, and Aidan Chen, seventh place in the boys’ 4x400-meter relay with a time of 3:37.18 

• Marin Cooney, Eleni Drosinos, Hanalei Strueli, and Reilly Porado, seventh place in the girls’ 4x800-meter relay with a time of 10:39.81

• Nate DeConto, Nick Spaner, Chris Wilkie, and Landon Rodrigues, eighth place in the boys’ 4x200-meter relay with a time of 1:35.97

• Claire Hook, Sonia Staroscik, Emily DeConto, and Emilie Bobola, eighth place in the girls’ 4x400-meter relay with a time of 4:17.37

• Allie Kaull, ninth place in the girls’ 3,000-meter run with a time of 10:48.71; and 10th place in the 1,000-meter run with a time of 3:13.73

• Nick Spaner, 10th place in the 300-meter dash with a time of 37.57 seconds

• Emily DeConto, 10th place in the 55-meter hurdles with a time of 9.66 seconds