Robert DiDonato (Germantown Academy)
Regionals Performance: DiDonato was targeting Foot Locker Northeast this year. He said he ran a couple of workouts at Van Cortlandt Park in the week's leading up the regional championship. That experience paid off for the junior, who made some serious moves in the final half of the race two weeks ago. DiDonato went from 13th to tenth in the final kilometer to grab the tenth and final nationals qualifying spot, running a time of 15:34. Like Sands, his time would have netted him a second place finish at FLNE last year (and the conditions were similar).
Season Recap: DiDonato rolled through his season schedule leading up to FLNE. After breaking through in a big way as a sophomore, DiDonato asserted himself as one of the state and region's best this fall. He won at the George School to get warmed up then bested an always-talented field at the Paul Short Run, running a massive PR of 15:15. He cruised to the Inter-Ac crown before repeating as the independent schools (PAISAA) champion in 15:49 at Belmont Plateau.
Nationals Outlook: DiDonato will be making his Foot Locker Nationals debut on Saturday. He hasn't over-raced this season was more than up for the challenge of the deep regional field, despite not having many competitive races this season. Just getting out of the deep Northeast region is quite the feat. While he was the region's final qualifier, DiDonato is capable of competing with some of the high placed finishers from some of the other regions. The top half of the field and the top 20 is also a good place for him to aim for.