By ALEX SPONSELLER St. Ray’s sprinter and Warwick resident Darius Kipyego made his long-awaited college decision official in a recent ceremony at the school, signing his National Letter of Intent to compete for Division I Iowa State.

Kipyego is arguably the top sprinter to ever come out of Rhode Island, winning state championships and setting state high school records in the 600 and 800-meter runs. He was also ranked third nationally in the 600 and fifth in the 800 while being named the Gatorade Player of the Year over the summer.

As a sophomore, Kipyego finished second in the 800 at the Pan Am U20’s with a time of 1:49.46. He was named to multiple All-State teams in both indoor and outdoor track during his first three years with the Saints.

Kipyego had numerous Division I offers and narrowed his choices down to Iowa State, the University of Southern California, Penn State and Virginia on the day of the ceremony.

His decision to go with Iowa State was a surprise to some, but ultimately, he felt that the school was the right fit based on his early connection with the coach and team.

“I know it’s a little surprising, they were all great schools, it was a really tough decision, but I just felt at home with everything, it clicked right away. From the first talk, the coach reminded me of my high school coach and had a funny side. I just felt at home,” said Kipyego, who was required to see the school from afar considering the ongoing pandemic. “The coach gave me a virtual tour, I want to do engineering so he took me there which was cool from that aspect. He set up a virtual call with the team which was exciting.”

Kipyego was excited to finally complete the two-year long process of being recruited and was in touch with Iowa State nearly every week for the past year as he continued to build his nationally-recognized resume.

“(They first reached out) last year. We talked once every week or so, just to catch up. We talked a lot. It was very difficult, I kept asking my parents and my coach, they all had a say in this. It was just kind of a feeling in the end. All of these schools had good coaches and good runners, it was tough for me to get it down to four schools to be honest,” Kipyego said.

As he gets set for his final seasons as a high schooler, Kipyego looks forward to finishing strong and was happy to make his decision official in front of friends and family.

“I have been sitting on (on the decision), it was September 27th that I actually made that decision. It was always something that was on the back of my mind, one day, on a weekend, it clicked. This is a dream come true, I have always thought about this,” Kipyego said. “I have seen people have these big reveals and I would dream about it. It is amazing to be able to do it with the people that support me in everything I do.”