Kingsway graduate Tom Cooke finished 1st among nearly 5,000 runners Sunday in the 2025 Phillies Charities 5K in Philadelphia.
Cooke, 30, ran 15:04 and finished two seconds ahead of former Penn XC runner Patrick Hally, from Salesianum in Wilmington, Del.
Cooke, who now lives in West Deptford, ran 1:54.53 and 4:11.84 at Kingsway before running briefly for Felician University in Rutherford. He’s since run 4:01.08 and 14:20.39 on the track.
Former Shawnee runner Eric Reitinger of Mount Laurel, 41, placed 4th in 15:35 and won the men’s 40-to-49 age group.
Top woman was Erica Green of Collingswood, who was 11th overall in 17:50. Green, 35, has only been running since 2018. On the roads, Green has PRs of 1:22:30 for a half marathon and 58:26 for 10 miles. She ran 2:50.40 at the 2022 Boston Marathon. Green is listed in the results as a Canadian citizen.
Also in the top 25: Austin Milou of Sewell, 24, a former Washington Township and Rowan runner; ran 17:42 and was 10th overall; Jon Ratliffe of Washington Township, 29, rtan 18:06 and was 14th; John Meehan of Woolwich Township, 36, ran 18:41 and was 21st; and Sean Mimier from Estell Manor, 16, placed 25th in 18:59.
No. 3 woman was Delsea senior Juliana Sieminski, 18, who ran 19:12 and placed 31st overall, and 5th woman was Jessica Laporta of West Deptford, 39, who ran 20:15 and was 47th overall. Laporta ran for the University of Scranton.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 