PROVIDENCE – An athlete who broke her high school’s record with a championship javelin throw last year has once again reached new heights – this time breaking her own record to win the Rhode Island Interscholastic League Outdoor Track & Field Championship for a second straight year.
Mackenzie Cleary, who walked the stage with her fellow graduates in the Burrillville High School Class of 2025 on Friday, June 6, went on to end her week with the record-breaking throw.
And Cleary, a multi-sport athlete who will study athletic training/physical therapy at the University of New England in Biddeford, Maine next year, didn’t stop there. The talented Bronco also received a medal for throwing shot put, taking seventh place with a throw of 33-9 at the championship meet, held at Brown University on Sunday, June 8.
Cleary was a junior on the BHS girls’ outdoor track and field team when she first won the state title for javelin with a personal best throw of 120 feet, eight inches. The throw beat the school’s previous girls record for javelin of 117 feet, set by Samantha Prario in 2019.
On June 9, Cleary ended an undefeated season in her senior year with a throw of 132 feet, two inches, breaking her own record by 62 inches, and winning the event by more than eight feet.
Now, the Bronco athlete will leave the school just a little more decorated with the Cleary name. Her father, Kevin Cleary, won the Rhode Island Championship and was named “most outstanding wrestler,” at the state tournament in 1994. Last fall, the Class of 2025’s own athlete Cleary had her name added to the State Champion Track & Field banner that hangs in the school’s Walter Ted Carter Gymnasium.
And with the latest throw, the two-time state champion has earned herself another entry on the banner.
Following the state championship, Cleary placed 2nd in the New England State Championship in Connecticut on Saturday, June 14 with a throw of 129 feet, nine inches. This weekend, she will attend National Track & Field Championship at University of Pennsylvania.
Cleary will also continue her volleyball career in college next year playing for the UNE team.
