Delsea graduate Nick Costello ran a lifetime-best time and won the 27th running of the Steamtown Marathon in and around Scranton this past weekend.
Costello ran 2:21.17 and finished more than two minutes ahead of Dylan Gearinger, a former Haverford runner and a 2015 graduate of Berwick (Pa.) High School near Bloomsburg. Gearinger ran 2:23.33.
Costello’s previous-best marathon time was a 2:26.35 at Grandma’s Marathon in Duluth, Minn., on June 17, 2023.
Costello graduated from Delsea in 2013. He placed 4th in the 2011 state Group 3 meet at Holmdel in 16:25 and then ran 16:22 a week later in the Meet of Champions. He ran track PRs of 4:24.50 and 9:19.19, the 4:24.50 indoors when he won South Jersey Group 2 sectionals at the Bubble in February 2012 and the 9:19.19 four months later at the outdoor Meet of Champions at Old Bridge. He was also state Group 3 champ at 3,200 meters in the spring of 2012.
Costello spent the fall of 2014 through the spring of 2018 at Colorado State in Fort Collins, Colo., running 8:52.36 for 3,000 meters, 15:165.85 for the 5,000 and 31:12.55 for 10,000 meters.
After graduating with a degree in agriculture business, Costello immediately began coaching, spending the 2019-20 cross country and track seasons as a volunteer assistant at the University of Wyoming. He was hired as a full-time coach in the fall of 2019 and is now in his sixth season in Laramie.
Costello has a half-marathon PR of 1:07.54 from the Philadelphia Half in September of 2022.
He’s not far off the South Jersey alumni marathon record of 2:17.22 set by Camden Catholic’s Kevin McDonnell last October at the Chicago Marathon. McDonnell ran 2:19.52 at the Twin Cities Marathon last month in St. Paul and Minneapolis.
Steamtown had a strong South Jersey flavor this past weekend. Brian Quilty of Pitman, a 2011 Rowan graduate and coach at Rutgers Camden, placed 30th in 2:53.00; Haddonfield graduate Ian Rowe-Nicholls of Cherry Hill was 65th in 3:02.09; and Andrew MacLane of Bordentown, a graduate of Middletown North, placed 72nd in 3:03.26.
In the women’s race, Nicole Dyer of Glassboro ran 3:18.29 and placed 25th, and Sharyn Freda of Upper Township – a graduate of Archbishop Wood in Warminster, Pa., also the alma mater of 3:57.59 high school miler Gary Martin – was 58th in 3:31.55.
The Steamtown course runs through 14 municipalities in Lackawanna County: Forest City, Vandling Borough, Fell Township, Simpson Township, Carbondale City, Carbondale Township, Mayfield Borough, Jermyn Borough, Archbald Borough, Jessup Borough, Blakeley Borough, Olyphant Borough, Dickson City Borough and the City of Scranton.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 