Ocean City’s Matt Hoffman, a freshman at St. Joe’s, ran a big 8K PR Saturday morning in the first race of the day at the Paul Short Invitational.
Hoffman placed 43rd out of nearly 600 runners in the open men’s race on Lehigh’s South Campus course in Lower Saucon Township and Bethlehem. He ran 25:17, well under his 25:52 at the Spiked Shoe Invitational at Penn State last month [that was actually a 26:55 over 5.2 miles, which converts to 25:52 for 8,000 meters].
St. Joe’s senior Dawson Baptiste from Delsea finished just a few spots behind Hoffman, taking 57th place in 25:27, an all-course 8,000 for him. His previous PR was 25:44 last year at IC4As at Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx.
Also under 26 minutes was Paul VI graduate Will Mrozinski, a freshman at Lehigh. He ran 25:47, more than half a minute faster than his previous best all-course 8,000 best – a 26:16 at a Lehigh-Lafayette dual meet at Lafayette’s Metzger Fields in Easton.
And St. Joe’s soph Ian Romea of Haddonfield dipped under 26 minutes for the first time with a lifetime all-course best 25:58.
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If you’re looking for posts on Shore Coaches, you might not see any for a while. The timing company has been unable to provide any results yet from Holmdel. Hopefully, they’re able to fix whatever issues they’re having.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 