Boys' 3,200m
Day 2 of the three-day meet will feature two heavily-contested 3,200-meter races. Last year in the boys' event, 10 runners dipped under nine minutes with Mikey Branigan of Northport (NY) establishing a state and meet record of 8 minutes, 42.92 seconds. Based on the entries for Friday's race, it looks like that mark will be safe. But the odds of another fast race with multiple runners under nine minutes is likely, and La Salle Academy's gifted trio of Jack Salisbury, Matt Bouthillette and DJ Principe should be part of it. The notion of one of them pulling off a victory is not too far-fetched either. Salisbury finished eighth in 2015 with an R.I. record of 8:56.55. Bouthillette was tenth with an 8:59.71 effort and Principe is a sub nine-minute two-miler. All three appear ready for a strong race on Friday. The Ram teammates tuned up for Loucks with a 1-2-3 finish at the Schomp Invitational this past Saturday where Salisbury clocked a winning time of 3:52.2, Principe was second at 3:52.8 and Bouthillette came across the line in 3:56.5.
New York's Aidan Tooker of Saratoga Springs is the top seed with a best of 8:51.52. Fellow state rival Conor Lundy of Fordham Prep is No. 2. Both have demonstrated they can perform in big races and should be a few that will be pushing the pace.
But you've got to give consideration to the La Salle runners, all capable of low 8:50 efforts in a race that features the talent like Loucks. Eight in the field are sub nine-minute runners! You also have to assume that recent Penn Relay's 3K winner Eric van der Els of Brien McMahon will be battling for the title, too. He is red-hot the last few months and can improve on his best of 9:05 for two miles substantially. He won the 5K at New Balance Nationals in March with a state record of 14:42.
Cumberland's Sean Laverty is also in the field. Laverty, a 4:13 miler, is coming off a slight injury. But he looked like he was back in form earlier this week when he ran an 8:57 "tempo" 3K to win the Northern Division crown. He's eyeing a sub 9:20 and should have a chance at that goal.