La Salle Does It Again At The New England's; Rams' Principe Captures Boys' Title

It was a repeat performance by La Salle Academy at Saturday's New England Championships.

And a little more!

The Rams once again captured the regional title, the third consecutive for boys and second straight for girls.The added bonus came from the boys where junior DJ Principe won the individual title with a superaltive time of 15 minutes, 48.4 seconds on a very-difficult five-kilometer terrain at Thetford Academy, Vt. He becomes the first Rhode Islander to accomplish the feat since former Chariho star Mike Marsella won in 2011.

"(DJ) looked so poised," said La Salle coach Ken Skelly. "He looked relaxed. He knew exactly how he wanted to attack that course."

Principe led his teammates to a convincing 76-96 win over the host state's PInkerton Academy. Finishing third was Staples with 200 points. Bishop Hendricken was fifth with 235 points and Cumberland took ninth with 299 points.

Principe earned his crown by utilizing a smart approach to the hilly terrain at Thetford that features a mammoth incline at about the 4K mark. He beat Connecticut runners Gabriel Altoop of Ridgefield (16:09.30) and Eric van der Els of Brien McMahon (16:09.40), who were second and third, respectively.

"(DJ) approached it just like he did at the states where he went out hard at the start," Skelly said. "But after about 200 meters he just eased into his pace." 

The Rams manufactured their victory with a solid core up front that included a fifth-place effort from senior Jack Salisbury (16:18.8) and senior Matt Bouthillette (16:23.0). Finishing between the La Salle duo was North Kingstown's super freshman Sam Toolin, who was sixth overall in 16:19.0.

The meet is the last race before La Salle and a few other R.I. teams and individuals compete in a couple of national-level events, including the Nike Northeast Regional where the Rams are the defending titlist. 

"Team-wise, (today) we had some good performances and some sub-par performances," Skelly said. "It wasn't our best race. It was the same as last year where we didn't run our best race, but then we went out and won the regionals."

With four runners among the top 20, the La Salle girls defeated second-place Coe-Brown Academy (NH), 60-86. Junior Eliza Rego was the first Ram finisher, placing fourth overall at 19:01.70. Winning the individual title for the third straight year was Staples senior Hannah DeBalsi with a time of 18:20.90. Continuing her outstanding fall season, last week's R.I. champion Ellie Lawler of South Kingstown took runner-up honors with an 18:32.90 clocking.

La Salle, the odds on favorite to snare title No. 2 at the NE meet, had solid efforts from senior Karina Tavares (14th, 19:35.40), sophomore Grace Connolly (16th, 19:37.30) and sophomore Emily Kane (19:38.40) on a cold afternoon that also saw a few snowflakes.

"We knew going in that we would be the favorite," said La Salle head coach Kelly Martin. "We knew it would be tough. There were a lot of great teams here. Our game plan was just to be confident in our ability and run as hard as we could for the team."

Rego once again set the tone for the Rams. 

"She went into the meet confident and relaxed," Martin said. "She did the best job she could for the team. She knew she had to be the lead runner."

Like their male counterparts, the next stop for Martin and her squad is NXN Northeast at Bowdoin Park on Nov. 28. Last year the Rams placed fourth at the meet and earned an at-large bid to the nationals in Oregon where they were ninth overall.

"We are getting excited," she said. "We are going to try our hardest and see if we can do what we did last year and get back (to the nationals)."

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