What a race for Tom Long today at the MAAC Championships at the Armory!
Long, a Cinnaminson High School graduate and Rider junior, PR’d for the fourth race in a row Sunday, running 4:15.77 for seventh place in the mile at the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Championships at the 168th Street Armory.
Not bad for a guy who never broke 4:24 in high school!
Long went into the meet as the No. 10 seed with a season-best and PR of 4:18.46 at a meet at Boston University last month
Long’s improvement has been dramatic. His PR at Cinnaminson was 4:24.53 for 1,600 meters from the South Jersey Invitational at Delsea in the spring of 2016. He focused mainly on the 800 his first year at Rider and only ran a couple mile races before this past January with a collegiate best of 4:27.47 from last winter.
But he PR’d at 4:22.81 in a meet at Ocean Breeze the first week of January and then lowered that to 4:18.46 in a meet at Boston University in late January and lowered it again with his 4:17.27 in the trials Saturday.
That set him up for Sunday’s final, where he PR’d again with a 4:15.77, less than two seconds out of third. That’s the equivalent of a 4:14.29 for 1,600 meters, so that’s more than a 10-second PR from high school.
Long was out in 33.0, then ran 31.7, 32.0, 32.1 for 2:08.7 through 800 meters and came back in 2:07.1 on 31.9, 32.6, 32.2 and 30.4. That’s a 62.6 final 400.
Johannes Motschmann of Iona won the race in 4:11.17, just ahead of Evans Kibet of Siena, second in 4:11.76.
