(The start of Sunday's Run 4 Kerri road race. La Salle Academy's D.J. Principe (far left, blue singlet) was 11th overall in 21:12.37)
After a hugely-successful freshman year for La Salle Academy, D.J. Principe is looking to pick up where he left off.
It all starts in a few more weeks when the cross-country season officially gets underway, one that his Rams are the overwhelming favorite to win the state crown and a legitimate threat to do some damage post-season by defending their crown at the New England Championships and possibly earning prosperity at the Nike Northeast Regionals.
Last year, the Rams lost to Bishop Hendricken by just five points at the state meet and came back a week later to capture the N.E. title.
“We really want to make sure we focus on states this year,” said Principe, a third-place finisher at the championship meet. “Last year, the last few weeks we kind of got a little unfocused.”
Individually, not too many ninth-graders nationwide had a year quite like Principe. He was No. 1 from coast to coast in the 3,000-meter run (8 minutes, 45.70 seconds) and the two mile (9:15.87) during the outdoor season and was the top-ranked frosh in the country for the 3K (8:50.72) and the 1,500m (4:10.60) on the indoor surface.
But while he was running some solid times, the final few weeks of his initial high school season did eventually take its toll. He was fourth overall at the state meet in 9:02, a substantial 17-seconds slower than his personal best. The following week, he placed 16th at the N.E. meet where he was nearly 20 seconds from his PB with a 9:46.17 clocking.
“I ended up getting my ferritin level down,” said Principe, about the iron deficiency. “The last three races or so were definitely not where I wanted them to be. But the levels are getting back up and I’m feeling good again.”
The soon-to-be sophomore looked sharp in his first race since the outdoor season. He was among the talented elite field at Sunday's Run 4 Kerri road race in Matunek, finishing 11th overall with a time of 21:12.37, a crisp 5:15 per-mile pace for the four-mile course.
“That was good,” he said. “I wasn’t really looking for anything crazy. I was really happy. I had a little bit of trouble at the end of the track season so I was just looking to get back to normalcy. I was really happy with it.”
Principe has been gradually building up his mileage this summer and right now is logging about 50 miles a week.
“I haven’t really been going crazy yet but this race was really a test to see where I was,” he said. “I’ll probably start bringing it up again.”
Principe joins an exceptional La Salle squad this fall that includes returning stars Jack Salsbury, Jake Grundy, Matt Bouthilette, Dan Paiva and Chris Notarianni. According to the gifted harrier, winning a state title is the No. 1 priority.
"That’s definitely the emphasis.” he said. “But Nike and anything like that is definitely our next goal. We’d like to try and go to nationals this year.”