Joe Domanico of Haddon Township, a senior at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y.,, ran a huge PR of 14:32.01 for 5,000 meters over the weekend at the David Hemery Valentine Invitational.
That’s No. 3 in RPI history indoors behind Grant O’Connor’s 14:17.84 at the same meet last year and Henry Jaques, who ran 14:23.84 in the same race as Domanico.
His previous 5,000 PR was a 14:54.20 at the same meet last winter. He won the Liberty Conference 5,000 title indoors with a 14:55.37.
It also makes Domanico No. 6 in school history indoors or outdoors.
The only runners in RPI history to run faster outdoors are current RPI assistant coach Ben Fazio (14:07.76 at Penn in 2017), O’Connor (14:09.85 at Penn last spring), Henry (14:28.46 at Bucknell last spring), Sean O’Connor (14:31.74 at Swarthmore last spring) and Noah Falasco (14:26.50 at Penn in 2019).
Jaques and Domanico are No. 1 and 2 in the Liberty Conference 5,000 rankings. In fact, RPI has the top six 5,000 runners in the conference and 12 of the top 16 – all at 15:35 or faster. Not surprisingly, RPI placed a school-record 10th in NCAA Division 3 XC this past fall in Louisville. Domanico placed 17th and earned All-America status.
Domanico is listed as No. 16 in NCAA Division 3, although that apparently includes an 11-second penalty for running on a banked track at Boston University, since he’s listed at 16:43.
Next for RPI is the conference meet in Rochester on Feb. 28-29.
At Haddon Township, Domanico had a 3,200 PR of 9:33.52. He placed fifth at states indoors as a senior at 9:37.07.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 