Kingsway’s Ryan Duffy continued his assault on the South Jersey freshman record book Saturday with what appears to be the fastest time ever recorded by a South Jersey 9th-grader at historic Holmdel County Park.
Duffy placed 3rd in the Varsity B race at the Shore Coaches Invitational in 16:22.50, which according to the MileSplit database is the 4th-fastest time by a freshman on the hilly 5,000-meter layout and fastest in 14 years.
The only faster times on record are a 16:15 by Colts Neck’s legendary Craig Forys at Shore Coaches in 2003, a 16:16 by West Windsor-Plainsboro North’s equally legendary Joe Rosa at the 2007 state Group 3 meet and a 16:19 by Barnegat’s Matthew Nelson at the 2009 Meet of Champions.
The database only goes back to 2000 and then into the 1990s including some races. It’s possible a freshman ran faster, but considering the dramatically slower state of the course from the 1970s through the 1990s and the evolution of times with course improvements at Holmdel over the last decade it’s not likely.
The previous known South Jersey freshman record at Holmdel belonged to another Kingsway runner, Joe Grandizio, who ran 16:31 at the 2014 state Group 4 meet.
As for the years before 2000, I checked some of the fastest pre-2000 South Jersey XC runners – guys like Jason DiJoseph [17:16 as a freshman] and Urie Ridgeway, Murad Campbell, Mike Mantini, Nate Miller, Mike Myers and Ron Deckert (none of whom ran at Holmdel as freshmen) – and couldn’t find anybody close to 16:22.
There were numerous results irregularities and errors in the final results, so every performance is under some question but it does appear that Duffy’s 16:22 is accurate.
Duffy finished behind Ridgewood junior Luke Pash [16:00.44], a 9:06 two-miler last spring, and Ridge junior Brenden McMahon [16:14.80], a 9:08 two-miler last spring. Duffy’s time was tied for 4th-fastest among all South Jersey runners Saturday at Holmdel.
Here’s a look at all South Jersey runners who went sub-17 Saturday:
15:43 … Peyton Shute [Woodbury], 1st, F race
15:49 … Nick Kuenkel [Cherokee], 3rd, A race
16:14 … Elijah Whitaker [Glassboro], 2nd, F race
16:22 … Elijah Forrest [Collingswood], 1st, E race
16:22 … Ryan Duffy [Kingsway], 3rd, A race
16:32 … Bennett Wright [Haddonfield], 4th, E race
16:42 … Ryan Gibson [Haddonfield], 6th, E race
16:44 … Liam Dougherty [Haddonfield], 7th, E race
16:44 … Will Mrozinski [Paul VI], 1st, G race
16:47 … Brady Bogos [Cherry Hill East], 20th, A race
16:49 … Aiden Williams [Audubon], 3rd, G race
16:50 … Dylan Saber [Williamstown], 21st, A race
16:51 … Liam Tindall [Cherokee], 23rd, A race
16:52 … Colin Moore [Cherry Hill East], 24th, A race
16:55 … Reid Gervasi [Haddonfield], 9th, E race
16:55 … Aziz Muhammad-Kane [Highland], 9th, C race
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 