Moiso named All-American
Lincoln junior honored at national meet
LINCOLN – The first time Lincoln High throwing coach Brian Grant ever laid eyes on Kyle Moison, it was on a football field during the latter’s freshman campaign, he believed he could become an outstanding weight thrower for the Lions’ indoor and outdoor track & field teams,
“I knew the first day that he was going to be pretty good – if he put the work in,” Grant said Monday. “You see a lot of naturally talented, gifted athletes who don’t put the work in, try to coast on talent, and that doesn’t work with all the technical aspects behind throwing the hammer. That’s why they don’t improve, or excel.”
Call Moison the complete opposite. Because of his intense desire to succeed, Grant noted, Moison can now call himself a national champion.
At the New Balance Outdoor National Championships at North Carolina A&T State University in Greensboro Friday, the congenial junior captured the Emerging Elite Division’s discus crown with a throw of 178 feet, 2 inches.
That happened to be his second-best throw ever, as he had achieved a school-record distance of 182-3 while winning the same event at the New England Championships in Saco, Maine earlier in the month.
The next day, in the Championship category, he competed among the nation’s best in the hammer and took fourth overall with a toss of 217-3, far off his best throw of 2334. Woonsocket sophomore and friendly foe Logan Coles snagged third just ahead of him with a plant of 226-4.
“We were hoping he would do well in the Emerging Division discus, and he did; he won it by a few feet,” Grant stated. “He went up against 40-50 of the top high school throwers in the country. Of course, Emerging Elite doesn’t have the same ring to it, or the same cache, as Championship Division, but you just go with the cards you’re dealt.
“Consider it: He’s a Rhode Islander, and Rhode Islanders always do rather well in the hammer because not a lot of other states have it. They don’t offer it as an official event (because some deem it too dangerous). Anyway, not many kids from our state even qualify in other throwing events, but outside of him and a girl from Classical, no other kid from our state did,” excepting the javelin.
“He was the state’s lone qualifier in the discus and shot put, but he didn’t compete in that because of scheduling conflict with the hammer,” he added. “Right after the discus, he seemed happy with the fact he won, but that was short-lived because we had to start concentrating on the hammer.”
Moison continues to add to his impressive list of laurels. In the winter, he earned state indoor titles in the shot put and 25-pound weight throw, then followed that up this spring with state and New England championships in the outdoor shot and discus.
He placed second at states in the hammer (behind Coles), and he won at the New Englands.
“Like I said, when I first saw Kyle, I told him, ‘You’ve got to try throwing. You could do some really great things,’” Grant said. “I know we’re both glad he decided to.”
Other area athletes who qualified for the national competition attended, and though they didn’t earn a top-six finish, did rather well. Among them: Cumberland junior Phil Coppolino took 13th in the Championship hammer (194-8), Clippers grad Cole Hooper 14th (191-8); Woonsocket senior Derin Paskanik 17th (179-4) and WHS junior Jesse Houle 25th (174-5).
As for the boys Emerging Elite hammer toss, senior Thomas Horton of Pawtucket placed sixth overall (169-4), while Lincoln seniors Jared Hemond (158-3) and Josh Taylor (156-7) took 10th and 14th, respectively. Woonsocket grads Dave Marszalkowski (155-1) ad Nathan Desplaines (153-11) managed 16th and 17th, respectively.
In the girls’ Emerging Elite hammer throw, Central Falls sophomore Elaine Vaz Ramos finished 25th (121-3); CHS sophomore Nicolette Ducharme 29th (119-7); Lincoln junior Allison Plante 30th (119-4); and Cumberland’s junior Kassidy Bernardo 33rd (114-10).
Woonsocket graduate Zach MacIntyre manufactured 15th in the javelin, while Central Falls grad Dulcinea Burgo placed 34th in the spear (105-8).