Pitman sophomore Sebastien Reed had quite a breakthrough race at sectionals, running a 12-second PR of 9:43.78 to win the South Jersey Group 1 race at the Bennett Center.
Reed finished about 60 meters ahead of second-place Patrick Mulligan, a Haddon Township senior, who ran an indoor-PR 9:55.17. Mulligan was the outdoor Group sectional champion last spring.
Reed’s previous PR indoors or out was a 9:55.42 at one of the SJTCA meets last month, also at the Bennett Center. His outdoor PR is a 10:01.80 from last year’s Group 1 sectionals at Egg Harbor, when he placed seventh and missed advancing to states by 1-10th of a second.
Reed has run 4:35 for 1,600 meters this winter but only ran the 3,200 at sectionals. His 9:43 is No. 3 this year among New Jersey’s group 1 runners, but he’ll be the No. 2 seed at states in the 3,200 behind only senior Fahd Nasser of McNair Academic in Jersey City, who has run 9:28.00 this winter and won the North 2 Group 1 sectional race in 9:37.43. Nasser was also the state Group 1 XC champ this past fall and placed third in the M-of-C with a 15:49.
Reed’s time is fastest by 10 seconds among all South Jersey Group 1 runners this winter and seventh-fastest among all New Jersey sophomores. The only faster South Jersey sophomore this season is Cherokee’s Chris Spisak, who won the South Jersey Group 4 race in 9:38.64.
The state Group 1 meet is scheduled for 9 a.m. Saturday at the Bennett Center.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 