Monmouth senior Sebastien Reed from Pitman ran a big 8,000 PR Saturday in West Windsor.
Reed ran 24:11 at the Princeton Fall Classic, trimming 55 seconds off his all-course best of 25:05 from last year’s Coastal Athletic Association Championships at Pole Green Park in Hanover County, Virginia, outside Mechanicsville.
Reed was Monmouth’s 2nd finisher, behind Declan McDonnell from Tatnall School in Wilmington, Del.
Penn junior Dennis Fortuna of Triton also ran an 8K PR. Fortuna was just behind Reed in 24:20. His previous all-course best was 24:45 earlier this month at Lehigh’s Paul Short Run in Bethlehem and Lower Saucon Township.
Peyton Shute, a freshman at Cornell, PR’d as well with a 24:32. That’s 19 seconds faster than his previous 8,000-meter best of 24:51 from a meet last month in Rochester, N.Y.
Rutgers teammates Kyle Rakitis, a junior from Kingsway, and Billy Clewell, a sophomore from Clearview, both ran under 25 minutes for the first time – 24:55 for Rakitis and 24:57 for Clewell. Rakitis’s prior all-course best was 25:16, also at Paul Short, and Clewell’s was 25:28 at the Fighting Illini Big Ten Preview in Savoy, Ill., last month.
Cherokee graduate Nick Kuenkel, a freshman at Monmouth, also dipped under 25 with a 25:57 just behind Clewell. He also ran his previous 8,000 PR at Paul Short – 25:24.
Zeb Hinker, a Rutgers junior from Lower Cape May, didn’t break 25 minutes, but he did run a season-best 25:01.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 