If five South Jersey miles under 4:17 at Haddonfield Thursday night wasn’t enough, a sixth ran well under 4:17 a few hours later at Holmdel.
Cherokee junior Patrick Ditmars ran 4:15.26 and placed 3rd out of more than 600 runners in 27 sections of 1,600 meters at the Holmdel Twilight Series Royal Rumble at Bob Roggy Stadium.
Ditmars’ previous PR was 4:19.61 at last year’s state Group 4 meet at Franklin High School.
Marco Langan from Bridgewater-Raritan won the race in 4:07.93. His PR was 4:11.40 indoors at the North 2 Group 4 sectionals at the Bubble in February – which was the last competitive 1,600 or mile he ran.
Colin Riley of Jonathan Dayton was 2nd in 4:13.92, dropping his PR from 4:16.51 also indoors at the Bubble in the Meet of Champions in March.
Ditmars’ time is No. 3 in Cherokee history, behind only Shawn Wilson [4:11.69 in 2013] and Marc Pelerin [4:11.86 converted from full mile in 2002] and just ahead of Steve Burkholder [4:15.49 in 2010] and Ethan Wechsler [4:15.52 in 2019].
It’s also No. 7 in Burlington County history and fastest since 2013, when Wilson ran 4:11.69 on the same track.
It’s also a Burlington County junior class record, breaking the mark of 4:15.52 set by Wechsler at the 2019 state Group 4 meet at Franklin.
Another Cherokee junior, Conor Jacob, PR’d in 9th place overall with a 4:18.45, a more than seven-second PR from his 4:25.84 when he won the Burlington County Open last weekend at Rancocas Valley.
And Cherokee sophs Nick Kuenkel and Robert Poplau ran 4:24.93 and 4:27.33, lowered their PRs from 4:26.13 at R.V. Saturday for Kuenkel and something north of 4:40 for Poplau, who hadn’t run a competitive 1,600 since freshman year.
Junior Thomas Bromley made it five Chiefs under 4:30. Bromley ran 4:27.89, dropping his PR nearly nine seconds.
Here’s the updated Burlington County sub-4:16 list:
4:11.15 … Ryan Garvin [Lenape], 2009
4:11.69 … Shawn Wilson [Cherokee], 2013
4:11.86y … Marc Pelerin [Cherokee], 2002
4:13.1y … Ricky Jacques [Burlington Twp.], 1968
4:14.60 … Matt Poskus [Cinnaminson], 2007
4:14.8y … Vance Watson [Willingboro], 1982
4:15.26 … Patrick Ditmars [Cherokee], 2022
4:15.28 … Jon Anderson [Cinnaminson], 2004
4:15.44 … Brian Tetreault [Cinnaminson], 2007
4:15.49 … Steve Burkholder [Cherokee], 2010
4:15.52 … Ethan Wechsler [Cherokee], 2019
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 