Camden Catholic graduate Matt Coffey, now a senior at St. Joe’s, ran a big mile PR in Boston Saturday and moved into the all-time St. Joe’s top-10.
Coffey ran 4:07.95, No. 9 on the all-time Hawks performance list and No. 2 among South Jersey runners. Eastern graduate Karl Savage ran 4:07.39 in 2001 as a St. Joe’s senior.
Coffey negative-split the race, out in 2:05.09 and back in 2:02.86, closing in 60.84 and 30.25.
At Camden Catholic, Coffey had an indoor PR of 4:26.09 for 1,600 meters at Ocean Breeze and an overall PR of 4:16.55 from the state Parochial A meet at Central Regional his senior year.
He ran 4:18.94 as a freshman indoors, missed outdoors because of the COVID shutdown, then ran 4:13.58 indoors in 2022, 4:11.31 last winter and 4:10.16 last month.
Outdoors, Coffey is No. 9 all-time in the 5000 at St. Joe’s with a 14:14.33. Another Camden Catholic runner on that list – Kevin McDonnell – was one of his coaches at Camden Catholic and placed 58th in the Olympic Marathon Trials Saturday in Orlando after going in as the No. 171 seed. McDonnell ran 14:03.52 in 2013 in Williamsburg, Va., No. 3 on the all-time St. Joe’s 5000 list.
Coffey’s 4:07.95 is No. 6 this year in the Atlantic 10 Conference. No. 8 on that list is another St. Joe’s runner from South Jersey – Delsea graduate Noah Deckert, who ran a lifetime-best 4:09.57 at the Armory last month. His previous mile PR was 4:15.96 last February at Ocean Breeze. Deckert ran 4:24.39 at Delsea.
(I just saw Deckert ran 8:07.88 today! More on that race tomorrow!)
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 