Kevin Veltre ran the race of his life Monday, trimming five seconds off his mile PR and chasing the top-ranked miler in NCAA Division 3 to the finish line at the New Jersey Athletic Conference championships at the Sea Breeze facility on Staten Island.
Veltre, a Rowan senior and a steeplechaser outdoors, raced Ramapo’s Jeremy Hernandez stride for stride. Hernandez, who ran a D3-leading 4:01.83 in Boston last weekend, won in 4:10.18, with Veltre second in 4:12.30.
Veltre led the first 600 and was still within 3-10ths of a second with two laps to go before Hernandez closed with laps of 30.9 and 29.4 for a final 400 of 60.3. Veltre closed in a fast 62.1 but still lost ground over the final two laps.
Veltre’s previous PR was a 4:17.17 in late January at Ramapo, also racing against Hernandez. But before that, his mile PR was a 4:23.59 from a meet last winter, also at the Sea Breeze facility.
So Veltre lowered his PR more than 11 seconds in the span of about a month.
Veltre, a Brick Memorial graduate, ran within a second of the Rowan indoor mile record of 4:11.3 set 21 years ago by Sean Mick, a Delsea graduate.
Veltre and Hernandez separated from the pack quickly. By the 800, they had more than a one-second lead over the second pack, which was led by Dale Johnson, a West Deptford graduate now a senior running for The College of New Jersey.
Here’s how Veltre and Hernanez matched up lap by lap:
1/8 mile
Veltre 31.4, Hernandez 31.6
1/4 mile
Veltre 1:02.0, Hernandez 1:02.2
3/8 mile
Veltre 1:33.6, Hernandez 1:33.7
1/2 mile
Hernandez 2:05.9, Veltre 2:06.0
5/8 mile
Hernandez 2:37.8, Veltre 2:38.1
3/4 mile
Hernandez 3:09.9, Veltre 3:10.2
7/8 mile
Hernandez 3:40.8, Veltre 3:41.5
Mile
Hernandez 4:10.18, Veltre 4:12.29
And lap-by-lap splits:
Hernandez 31.6, 30.6, 31.5, 32.2, 31.9, 32.1, 30.9, 29.4
Veltre splits: 31.3, 30.6, 31.6, 32.4, 32.1, 32.1, 31.2, 30.9
As for Johnson, he finished third with a PR of his own at 4:16.19, fifth-best in TCNJ history indoors. Johnson ran his last five laps within the range of 32.1 to 32.4.
Johnson’s previous lifetime best was a 4:18.72 from his freshman year at TCNJ and a meet at Boston University. His previous season best was a 4:20.66, also in Boston.
Johnson had a 1,600 PR in high school of 4:20.46 at the 2014 indoor Meet of Champions. That was slightly faster than his outdoor PR of 4:20.69 from the 2014 South Jersey Invitational.
Veltre also led off Rowan’s 3,200-meter relay team, running head-to-head with Johnson, as a matter of fact. Veltre split 1:57.7 and was followed by Martin Maldonado [1:58.1], Nick Nocco [2:02.1] and Nick Neville [1:58.1] as the Profs ran 7:55.97 and edged TCNJ, which ran 7:56.46. Johnson split 1:58.3 opening up for TCNJ.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 