BOSTON, Mass. (June 9, 2016)- A Pan Am Junior Champion, the top girls' cross country runner in the nation, and three athletes ranked #1 in the U.S. for 2016 are among the high school stars set to compete in the adidas Boys' Dream Mile and adidas Girls' Dream 1500at the adidas Boost Boston Games on June 17-18, organizers announced today.
Kate Murphy, Katie Rainsberger, Eduardo Herrera, and Caitlin Collier join Thomas Ratcliffe, who was previously announced, in leading the fields that will compete at Dilboy Stadium in Somerville on Friday evening, June 17, to kick off two days of world-class track and field. The action will culminate with a "street meet" Saturday, June 18, on Charles Street in Boston, the first event of its kind ever held in the U.S. Among the highlights of the street meet will be the Boys' and Girls' Dream 100 races, with fields to be announced next week.
Tickets and more information are available at www.adidasBoostBoston.com.
The Dream races, which since 2010 had been contested at the adidas Grand Prix in NYC, annually produce some of the fastest times in the country. In 2012, the top 12 times in the nation were recorded in the Boys' Dream Mile, and last year five of the top six times were set. In 2011, Lukas Verzbicas won in 3:59.71 to become just the fifth U.S. high school athlete in history to run under 4 minutes.
The Girls' Dream Mile, which has been switched to 1500 meters this year as several girls seek Olympic Trials qualifiers, produced the top eight times in the nation in 2013.
Kate Murphy (Lake Braddock HS, Burke, VA) is the 2015 Pan American Junior Champion and USATF Junior National Champion at 1500m. Only a junior, she has already run the second-fastest indoor 1000 meters ever by a high schooler, and recently moved up to #6 (4:14.26) on the all-time 1500-meter list.
Katie Rainsberger (Air Academy, Colorado Springs, CO) is an eight-time individual state champion, including two titles each in cross country, 800m, 1600m, and 3200m, and is the 2016 Gatorade National Girls Cross Country Runner of the Year. Rainsberger sits one spot ahead of Murphy on the all-time 1500-meter list, at #5, with a time of 4:14.20. She is the daughter of 1985 Boston Marathon winner Lisa Rainsberger, the last American woman to win that iconic race.
Eduardo Herrera (Madera South, CA) is ranked #1 in the U.S. at 3000 meters (8:15.01) and was runner-up at 1600 meters at the 2016 state championships, while Caitlin Collier (Bolles HS, Jacksonville, FL) leads the U.S. mile list at 4:46.63. A sophomore, she is a three-time state champion at 800 meters; a two-time state champion at 1600 meters, and the 2016 state champion at 3200 meters.
They join Ratcliffe (Concord-Carlisle, MA), who last week broke the Massachusetts and New England high school records for the mile when he ran 4:01.50 and is ranked #1 in the country at 2 miles (9:00.52).
In the Boys' Dream Mile, Ratcliffe and Herrera will be challenged by:
- Ryan Schweizer (Dowling Catholic, West Des Moines, IA), an eight-time state champion including back-to-back titles at 800m, 1600m, and 3200m who is also the 2016 Drake Relays and Kansas Relays Champion;
- Joseph Bistritz (Chagrin Falls, OH), a two-time state cross country champion and 2016 state 1600m champion;
- Jack Salisbury (LaSalle Academy, Providence, RI), a 10-time individual state champion, including three consecutive titles at 1500m;
- Gavin Gaynor (Hudson, OH), a four-time state champion at 1500m (2 outdoor, 2 indoor) who was ranked #1 in the U.S. at 1600m indoors for 2016; and
- Patrick Parker (American Fork, UT), runner-up in the mile at the 2016 Arcadia Invitational.
In the Girls' Dream 1500, Murphy, Rainsberger, and Collier will face:
- Ella Donaghu (Grant HS, Portland, OR), a 13-time state champion, including three titles each in cross country and 1500m;
- Nevada Mareno (Leesville Road HS, Raleigh, NC), the 2015 indoor national mile champion and 2016 state champion at 800m, 1600m, 3200m who was third in the 2015 Foot Locker Nationals Cross Country Championships;
- Madie Boreman (Leander Rouse HS, Leander, TX), runner-up at the 2015 USATF World Youth Track & Field Trials in the 2K Steeplechase and the 2016 Kansas Relays Champion at 1600m; and
- Margie Cullen (Needham, MA), the 2016 state champion, 2 miles (10:27.59, #2 in U.S.).
More top athletes in both the boys' and girls' races are expected to be announced next week. The Dream racers will all compete on the same track as two-time Olympic gold medalist Meseret Defar, 2015 IAAF World Champion Wayde van Niekerk, and 2008 Olympic medalist Nick Willis, among others.
The adidas Boost Boston Games is produced by Boston-based Global Athletics and Marketing, Inc., an athlete-management and sports marketing firm that from 2005 to 2015 served as organizer of the adidas Grand Prix in NYC and since 1996 has given Boston fans an annual, world-class indoor meet at the Reggie Lewis Track and Athletic Center at Roxbury Community College.
Details on the adidas Boost Boston Games, the fifth stop of the 2016 USATF Championship Series, can be found on the event website at www.adidasBoostBoston.com; on Facebook at adidasBoostBostonGames; on Twitter at @adidasBoostBos (#WhyIRunBOSTON), and on Instagram at adidasBoostBostonGames.
