La Salle's Matt Bouthillette set a state 3,200 mark with his fifth-place time of 8:51.23 at the Loucks Games.
La Salle Academy's "Big Three" was part of another classic 3,200-meter race at the Glenn B. Loucks Games in New York.
The host state's Noah Affolder of Carthage won the individual title Friday night with a nation No. 3 of 8 minutes, 47.60 seconds. Affolder led a total of 11 runners under the nine-minute barrier, including the Rams' Matt Bouthillette, DJ Principe and Jack Salisbury. Bouthillette finished fifth overall with a state record of 8:51.23, just a few strides ahead of Principe, who placed sixth in 8:51.43. Salisbury was ninth overall with a time of 8:57.70.
In last year's event, 10 runners clocked a time faster than nine minutes.
"We are very happy with their performances," La Salle coach Vin McGinn said. "It was a brutal race, a difficult one."
The race was tightly contested for much of the eight laps. The La Salle trio were among the contenders during the early stages of the race with Principe handling front-running duties at the mile mark, passed at 4:28. Bouthillette and Salisbury also took turns leading the race before the midway point.
"That was a collective (decision)," stated McGinn, about the Ram teammates' strategy. "We did want to control the race and run a time around 8:50 or slightly faster. I am very happy with how Matt and DJ ran. Jack was a little off today. But if you're off and can still run under nine minutes, I guess that's a good thing."
Bouthillette broke the one-year-old state record of 8:56.55, set by Salisbury in last year's race.
"I thought they ran well," added Ram assistant coach Bill Meyers. "When you have three guys under nine minutes, you have to be happy with that. Jack wasn't on his 'A' game but he gutted it out."
Finishing 25th overall was Cumberland's Sean Laverty with a strong time of 9:19.19.
In the girls' race, La Salle's foursome of Eliza Rego, Karina Tavares, Emily Kane and Grace Connolly broke the 11-minute barrier. Rego, who was in second-place for a good portion of the race, finished sixth overall at 10:40.02. Taveres was ninth (10:44.51), Kane placed 11th (10:50.24) and Connolly was 12th (10:53.97).
The race was won by Kelsey Chimiel of Saratoga Springs (NY) in a time of 10:19.39.
'To be honest, I thought we could have gone a little faster," said La Salle coach Kelly Martin. "We went out a little fast and in the middle lost a little focus...Time-wise, I was hoping for a little faster."
Rego, who was third in the 2014 race, was in second at the mile, passed in 5:15. She held that position until there was about 250 meters remaining.
