One of track & field's premier outdoor meets will feature one of our own.
La Salle Academy's DJ Principe is among the field for Saturday's International Mile at the Prefontaine Classic, where he'll toe the line with top collegiate and open runners. Locally, former Seekonk all-stater Johnny Gregorek is among the 15 that are scheduled to compete in the race (see field below), which is set to begin at 5 p.m. EST. Gregorek owns a 3:55.27 best.
Principe's primary reason to compete in the high-level meet is to make another attempt at a sub four-minute mile, a milestone he came less than a second from accomplishing during the indoor season when he clocked a time of 4:00.93 at the New Balance Games. Of note, it was at the Pre Classic in 2001 where former high school standout Alan Webb broke the 36-year-old outdoor HS record of Jim Ryun with the current national mark of 3:53.43.
Prior to a few weeks ago, it's been a relatively quiet outdoor season for Principe, who had competed in only a few meets since finishing third in the two mile at the New Balance National Indoor Championships. But lately, the Stanford-bound runner has proven his spring training has been going well and that a "sub-4" is a possibility. Principe clocked the nation's fastest time for 3,000 meters on May 6 with a "solo" effort of 8:16.60 at the Rick Schomp Invitational, a race he won by 43 seconds! He captured the 1,500m at last week's Brian Moretti Invitational with a nation No. 3 of 3:54, winning by a 14-second margin. Check out the race in the video below.
Principe's latest superlative effort prior to the Pre Classic came on Saturday where he set a meet record of 1:54.6 for 800m at the Class A Championships. Afterwards, the La Salle runner talked about his race and his plans for next weekend's meet at the University of Oregon in Eugene.
WATCH Principe's 800m race at the Class A meet.
International Mile
ENTRY LIST
USA ABDA, Harun
USA CASEY, Patrick 3:52.62
BRA DO ROSARIO ANDRE, Thiago
MAR EL KAAM, Fouad 3:54.21
USA GREGOREK, John 3:55.27
CZE HOLUĊ A, Jakub 3:53.46
NOR INGEBRIGTSEN, Henrik 3:50.72
NOR INGEBRIGTSEN, Jakob
USA LOMONG, Lopez 3:51.45
AUS MATHEWS, Luke 3:56.7h
GBR O'HARE, Chris 3:56.35
USA PRINCIPE, David 4:07.66
AUS RAMSDEN, Matthew 4:06.984:06.98
USA WHEATING, Andrew 3:51.74
ETH WOLDE, Dawit 3:54.51