Triton’s Dennis Fortuna, a junior at Penn, ran a big 8K PR Saturday morning at Paul Short, helping the Quakers place 10th of 44 teams in the men’s college gold race.
Fortuna ran 24:47 and was fastest of a large number of former South Jersey runners racing in an incredibly deep and fast race – 24 under 24 minutes, 136 under 25 minutes.
Fortuna’s previous 8,000 PR was a 24:59 on the same course in 2022. A 24:47 for 8K is the same pace as a 15:29 for 5,000 meters.
A bunch of other South Jersey runners set 8K PRs:
–> St. Joe’s senior Josh Forrest of Collingswood ran 24:57, well under his previous best of 25:50 the 2022 Paul Short race.
–> Rutgers sophomore Kyle Rakitis ran 25:16, trimming 14 seconds off his 8K PR of 25:30 from last year’s Paul Short Invite.
–> St. Joe’s freshman Jack Bolling from Haddon Heights ran 25:24 in his first collegiate 8,000-meter race.
–> Monmouth freshman Nick Kuenkel from Cherokee ran 25:24 in his first collegiate 8K.
Many other South Jersey runners. Full results click here.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 