Glassboro senior Elijah Whitaker recorded his 2nd straight invitational win Tuesday at the Tri-County Conference Showcase Championships at Cumberland Regional in Upper Deerfield Township.
Whitaker ran 15:47.48 over 5,000 meters, edging Kingsway freshman Ryan Duffy for the second straight meet. Duffy ran 16:00.57. Whitaker and Duffy ran 1-2 Thursday at the Gloucester County Championships at West Deptford Park.
Whitaker has now run under 15:50 in back-to-back races. His previous all-course 5K PR was a 16:14 in the Shore Coaches Varsity F race, where he placed second to Woodbury’s Peyton Shute.
Duffy’s time appears to be a freshman course record, according to the MileSplit database. Another Kingsway runner, Joe Grandizio, ran 16:07.41 at Cumberland Regional at the 2014 Tri-County Championship.
Duffy’s previous all-course 5K PR was a 16:07.2 last week at the Gloucester County meet. Duffy’s 16:00.57 is the fastest time on any course this year by a New Jersey freshman.
Washington Township placed five runners in the top 20 and all seven in the top 26 to win the team title, 67-81, over Clearview, with Kingsway [96] and Williamstown [99] also in double digits.
Senior Aaron Kolosowsky led the way for the Minutemen in 8th place in 16:44, and junior teammate Hunter Bostwick finished 10 seconds one spot back. Also in Township’s lead group were senior Patrick Lant [13th in 17:11], senior Evan Bongard [19th in 17:28] and senior Daniel Torres [20th in 17:34].
Senior Daniel Mumbower [21st in 17:35] and junior Joshua Baseshore [26th in 17:46] also raced for the Minutemen.
Washington Township’s 4th and 5th runners both finished of every other school’s 4th runner.
Others in the top 10 were Williamstown junior Dylan Saber [3rd in 16:06], Delsea sophomore Matthew Littlehales [4th in 16:24], Williamstown sophomore Dominic Burgio [5th in 16:32], Clearview junior Ethan Worst [6th in 16:35], Williamstown junior David Kershner [7th in 16:42] and Clearview senior Akshar Patel [10th in 17:00].
Washington Township won last year’s meet on a 6th-runner tiebreaker (Lant) with Williamstown at 49-apiece.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 