Stumbled upon two XML parsers that satisfy the need for speed:

Piccolo - Piccolo was developed using modified versions of the parser generator tools JFlex and BYACC/J. I had used flex and byacc in C and C++ parsers, but I noticed that almost all Java XML parsers are hand-written. I developed Piccolo as an investigation of parser generator tools in Java and of high performance Java techniques.

Sparta - Sparta is a lightweight Java XML package that includes an XML parser, a DOM, and an XPath interpreter.  The code-size is small, the parser is fast, the object memory size is small, and the DOM API is clean and simple.

As usual, everything written in 100% Java, can't ask for anything less!