After the opening mile of Sunday's RIIL Boys' State Meet, it was clear what was on the mind of DJ Principe.
With his eyes squarely on the course record, the La Salle Academy junior sizzled through a sub 4:40 first mile and cruised to a winning time of 15 minutes, 9.57 seconds. Principe eclipsed the old mark of 15:14.05, set by former Westerly great Andrew Springer in 2008.
"I really want to take a crack at 15 (minutes) so I figured if I could go out at that pace I could try and fall back to the record, almost," he said. "My strategy was to try and separate myself early. From the gun, I just wanted to go after it."
Principe's performance on Ponaganset's five-kilometer course was just the opening act for the Rams. With a 1-2-3 finish that also included runner-up Matt Bouthillette and third-place finisher Jack Salisbury, La Salle won its second straight team title with a 35-59 victory over second-place Bishop Hendricken. Bouthillette was timed in 15:43.94 and Salisbury crossed the line at 15:54.31. La Salle also had a splendid seventh-place effort from senior Alex Campagna (PB of 16:10.15), Senior Alex Martinez completed the scoring by taking 25th overall (16:39.20).
"We did a good job of making sure we took care of all the small things (today)," said La Salle head coach Ken Skelly, whose squad beat the Hawks eight days earlier at the Class A meet. "The biggest part, more than the race plan, is relying on some of the small things you have to do. They did a great job with that all year. So by the time we sat down this week, it was just a matter of fine tuning, just sitting down and saying, 'So how do you feel, and a matter of here's your placement and where you should be and, if everything goes well according to plan, just keep going?"
Principe, who last week won the class meet with a fast 15:19 clocking, never let up on a perfect day for racing. He held a two-second cushion on Bouthillette and North Kingstown freshman Sam Toolin (fourth, 15:57.88) after a 4:38 first mile. He passed Mile 2 in 9:36. With the finishing clock in clear view for the final stretch on the Chieftains' football field, Principe picked up the pace one last time to secure the CR and his second straight win.
Afterwards, the La Salle standout admitted he was more thrilled with his team's victory than his back-to-back individual titles.
"That was the goal," he said. "It really doesn't matter about individual placement. It's great to see kids like Matt and Jack finish in 1-2-3 and 'Camps' ran unbelievable today, getting seventh. These last two weeks he has really shown us what he's made of. He was awesome."
Speaking of Campagna, he came through for the second straight week for the Rams, chopping eight seconds off his PR from the class meet.
"He had a goal of being first team all state back in the summer," Skelly said. "That goal was lofty back then but he proved it last week. He just had to come back today and do it again. That's not easy. That, right there, gave us a total of 13 points after four runners. That's a very dominating performance."
In most state meets, 59 points would be enough to win the team title. Unfortunately not this time for Hendricken, which had all five of its scoring runners among the first 20 placements. Senior teammates Dominic Parlato (fifth, 16:02.34), Avery Ingegneri (tenth, 16:15.67) and Mike Kiernan (13th, 16:23.42) led the way for the Hawks.
"I kind of knew what we were up against, a real great team," said Hendricken coach Jim Doyle. "I felt we had a very, very good team; probably one of the better ones that I have coached. I told them not to be disappointed and give it your best effort. They knew what they were up against. I congratulate La Salle. They had a great, great race. They all ran well."
Following a similar path as the Rams' Principe, who was third here as a ninth-grader, Toolin once again didn't back down from the competition on the biggest of stages. He was in third until he was passed by Salisbury during the closing mile.
"It was a good race," he said. "I think I took it out a little bit too fast, trying to stay with DJ and Matt Bouthillette. It was a hard race with all those hills. I tried to hold my spot. Me and Salisbury were kind of battling it out through the race. He kind of took it over near the end."
Cumberland junior Ben Drezek finished sixth and senior teammate Sean Laverty was eighth to lead the Clippers to a fourth-place finish with 124 points, just five ahead of fifth-place Barrington. With a gap of just 35 seconds between its first and fifth runners, East Greenwich placed third overall with 108 points. North Kingstown was sixth with 202 points.
The top six teams earned a trip to next Saturday's New England Championships at Thetford Academy in Vermont.
