Lenape became the third New Jersey school this year with three milers running 4:30 or faster when seniors Colin Hermack, Sean Brennan and Will Whalen turned the trick at the SJTCA meet at the Bubble on Friday.
Hermack won the race in 4:28.96, Paul VI junior Will Mrozinski was 2nd in 4:30.16 and Brennan and Whalen took 3rd and 4th, both in 4:30.39.
Hermack has run 4:27.82 outdoors – he was 5th at Grouip 4 sectionals at Buena last spring – but his time is an indoor PR by nearly 20 seconds.
Brennan and Whalen both ran lifetime bests. Brennan had never broken 4:50 indoors or out, and Whalen hadn’t broken 4:45.
Mrozinski also PR’d. He also hadn’t broken 4:50 indoor – he hadn’t run an indoor 1,600 since he was a freshman – and his outdoor PR is 4:33.71 from Parochial A states at Middletown North last spring.
If you’re thinking 4-by-mile, you should be. He ran the 3,200 and not the 1,600 on Friday, but sophomore Noah Manwaring ran 4:35.51 in his only 1,600 so far this winter – earlier this month at Ocean Breeze. Manwaring placed 12th at Group 4 XC sectionals at DREAM Park in October and was the top sophomore in the race. Manwaring ran the 3,200 Friday and placed 2nd to Cherokee’s Patrick Ditmars in a PR 9:54.10. Ditmars ran 9:41.84.
If you add up those four times, you get 17:59.9. The 4-by-1,600 or 4-by-mile is rarely run indoors, but outdoors, only 16 schools have run sub-18 for a 6,400-meter relay or the 4-mile equivalent, most recently Kingsway with a 17:59.1 converted from yards in 2019 at Nationals in Greensboro, N.C.
The only other New Jersey schools with three milers under 4:31 so far this year are Ridge and Christian Brothers Academy.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 