Principe Annihilates Field At Nike Northeast!

He won his state and New England titles with ease. And on Saturday, he dominated the field at the Nike Cross Nationals (NXN) Northeast Regionals. 

Is there even a doubt that La Salle Academy's DJ Principe should be listed as a contender for next week's national meet in Portland, Oregon?

The Ram standout's latest effort propelled him to a new course record on the rolling landscape of Bowdoin Park in Wappinger Falls, New York. With his arms raised high, Principe broke the tape in a winning time of 15 minutes, 18.0 seconds. In a race that brings together some of the most talented harriers from the northeast region, the Stanford-bound runner won by nearly 200 meters! Finishing second was Jordan Brannan of Colt Necks (NJ) in 15:51.8.

Besides his time, which is five seconds fastest than his old CR set at the Bowdoin Classic in late September and 10 ticks better than the No. 2 runner on the all-time list, another impressive stat is the fact that Principe ran nearly identical splits for the first uphill half of the course (7:40) and the second downhill portion (7:38).

His winning performance earned him his second straight trip to the Nike Cross Nationals individually. Last year, he joined former teammate Matt Bouthillette (fifth) in Oregon. La Salle qualified as a team in 2014.

Principe's plan for Saturday's race was to take the pace out hard from the start. By the first mile, he already had a sizable six-second gap on the chase pack.

"I kind of wanted to look at some of the things that I did wrong last year. I think I really didn't run my own race for the first half," he said. "I wanted to get out, do my thing, and just keep cranking."

Principe will now set his sights on the Nationals next week where he has a good chance to earn gold. He's going to give it his best shot.

"I just really want to go out there and compete to the best of my ability and hang with that front group and see what I have left that last half mile," he said.

As a team, La Salle finished eighth overall with 290 points. Christian Brothers Academy (NJ) won the top prize, defeating New England champion Staples (CT), 122-132 . CBA and the Wreckers advanced to the nationals with their 1-2 finish.

La Salle freshman Max DiMuccio placed 20th in the field of 309 runners. Barrington's Mars Bishop was 38th in 16:45.8 and Chariho's Kyle Keefe was 57th at 16:56.

Westerly's Randi Burr was best among RI girls, finishing 17th with a 19:15 clocking in the Championship race. LIz Sullivan of Portsmouth was 30th (19:38) and teammate Nikki Merrill was 50th (19:56). There was 229 finishers.

* North Kingstown captured the girls' Open race with 54 points. The Skippers' Wyndom Chace was seventh and teammate Lily Nunnery finished 15th. Barrington's Katie Zitzmann (ninth) and Bay View's Clare Hanlon (12th) were also among the top 20. In the boys' open race. Hendricken had two of its squads and La Salle also had a team in the top 10. MileSplit will have results of that race soon.

COMPLETE RESULTS

(Below results courtesy of Bob Leddy of RI Track & Field Foundation)