Scott Hubbard, who had an indoor PR of 4:31.73 at Audubon, is now the fastest miler in the New Jersey Athletic Conference.
Hubbard, a Rowan sophomore, ran 4:13.19 at the David Hemery Valentine Invitational at Boston University Saturday. His previous PR was 4:18.03 from last weekend at Ocean Breeze and before that it was 4:20.34 from a meet last indoor season at the Armory. So he’s lowered his lifetime best more than seven seconds in a little over a week.
Hubbard finished 2-100ths of a second in front of another former Colonial Conference runner, MIT sophomore Jacob Cobb from West Deptford. Current Woodbury senior Peyton Shute ran 4:13.36, making it three Colonial Conference runners finishing in the span of less than 1-5th of a second (although they were all in different sections).
Hubbard actually ran solo, finishing more than five seconds ahead of the second place in his section, Bellamy Immanuel of Eastern Mennonite in Harrisonburg, Va. That’s what happens when you run that much faster than your seed time.
Although Hubbard’s remarkable performance isn’t even mentioned in a brief story on Rowan’s web site, his time is fastest by a Rowan miler since 2018, when Brick Memorial’s Kevin Veltre ran 4:12.30 at the NJAC meet at Ocean Breeze.
Rowan now has four milers under 4:20 this year.
Junior Jacob Riley from North Warren ran 4:14.84 at the Armory last month, sophomore Tyler Green from Ocean City 4:18.25 in Boston this weekend – Greene’s high school PRs were 4:27.56 outdoors and 4:30.14 indoors – and freshman Johannes Rivera from Bergenfield 4:19.50 last month at Ocean Breeze. Two others are close – sophomore Cole Kolodziej from Washington Township ran 4:22.62 and freshman Joshua Cason of Camden County Vo-Tech 4:22.91, both at Ocean Breeze last month.
Delsea graduate Sean Mick set the Rowan record of 4:11.3 hand-timed at the Haverforrd Last Chance Meet on Feb. 28, 1997. Rowan’s web site doesn’t say what meet that was at.
Rowan is ranked 6th this week in NCAA Division 3 by the USTFCCA and No. 1 in the East Region.
The NJAC Championships at Ocean Breeze are scheduled for 4 p.m. a week from Monday at Ocean Breeze. Rowan has won eight straight men’s titles.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 