New Balance Nationals
The NBNO meet has the potential to be a prosperous one for R.I. The three-day meet begins on Friday, highlighted by the Championship 5,000-meter run. In the boys' race, La Salle's DJ Principe will be eyeing his own state record of 14:42.91, set last year when he placed fifth overall. This weekend, he could break that mark substantially with the right kind of race. Rams' assistant coach Bill Myers believes Principe is in 14:20 shape, and so does the star runner.
Principe got a boost of confidence a few days before last week's New England Championships when he did a workout of 10-400s with a 45-second break. He hit his first eight around 68 seconds and last two under a minute.
"I was really happy with how the workout went," he said, after finishing third in the mile at the New England's. "That definitely was a confidence booster feeling what 68 and 69s felt like. I definitely want to get out there and control the race from the beginning and just keep clicking off as many 68-second splits I can and see what I can come up with."
The girls' 5K at NBNO will include South Kingstown's Ellie Lawler, the state's cross-country champion. Lawler, who competed for her school's swim during the winter months, recently finished fourth for 3,000m at the State Meet and was 12th overall for 3,200m at the New England Championship. The state record for 5k is 17:11.32, which was done by former La Salle great Sheridan Wilbur at NBNO in 2015. During the fall, Lawler ran her all-time best for the 3.1-mile distance by winning the state X-C meet on the rolling terrain of Ponaganset's covered-bridge trail with a time of 17:29.28.