There was quite an 800 race at Wednesday’s Cherokee-Lenape dual meet, with four runners under two minutes.
Cherokee senior Brett Shea led the way, winning in 1:56.6, following by Lenape’s Justin Penny, who ran 1:59.0.
Cherokee sophomore Patrick Ditmars took third in 1:59.4 and Cherokee freshman Nick Kuenkel was fourth in 1:59.8.
Shea has run some fast relay splits, including a 1:56.3 to give Cherokee a 4-by-8 win at the Blue Devil Classic this past weekend in Westfield. But his fastest previous 800 according to MileSplit, was a 2:00.27 back in early March, in an outdoor meet during the indoor season, also against Lenape.
Penny, a junior, is listed with a 2:05.43 PR by MileSplit, so this appears to be a big PR for him as well.
Ditmars has run mainly the 1,600 and 3,200 so far, and MileSplit shows a previous 2:12.46 PR for him from an indoor meet at the Bubble back in February of 2020.
And Kuenkel shows a previous 800 PR of 2:06.16 from the same meet on March 3 that Shea ran his 2:00.27.
The only South Jersey sub-2 performances listed on MileSplit so far are a 1:55.04 and a 1:59,62 by Kingsway teammates Kyle Rakitis and Jeffrey Heineman back in March in Maplewood.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 