In his first high school 5K, Cinnaminson’s James McKeon ran one of the fastest times ever over 5,000 meters by a South Jersey freshman.
McKeon placed 12th in the Council Rock Invitational in Newtown Township, Bucks County, Saturday morning in 16:29 over a challenging course at Tyler State Park.
The only other Burlington County freshmen who have run that fast according to the MileSplit database, which goes back to 2000, are former Cherokee runner Jack Tindall [15:26 in 2024 at DREAM Park], Peter Simpson when he was still at Moorestown before transferring to Haddonfield [16:10 in 2022] and Cherokee’s Benjamin Realley [16:20 in 2023 at DREAM Park].
The fastest previous time by a Cinnaminson freshman on any 5,000-meter course was sub-4 miler Austin Gabay’s 16:42 in 2016 at New Egypt. Doesn’t look like Jon Anderson came close to sub-17 as a freshman.
In his only previous high school race, McKeon ran 10:40 over 3,200 meters and placed 2nd in the freshman race at the Cherokee Challenge behind Noah Smith of Council Rock South, which is two miles from the starting line at Tyler Park. Smith was 3rd Saturday in 16:04.
McKeon’s time is fastest by any New Jersey freshman this year, according to the MileSplit database. He’s the only freshman under 17 minutes.
With all five scorers in the top 40 out of 132 runners, Cinnaminson placed 5th with 123 points. Manheim Township of Lancaster County won the race with 73 points.
Also for Cinnaminson, senior Ryan Scaricaciottoli was 18th in 16:40, senior Edward Abu-Adas placed 22nd in 16:49, senior Owen Castanheira ran 34th in 17:04 and junior Keith Fried was 37th in 17:15.
Sophomore Luke Feeley [43rd in 17:22] and senior Sean Ruggiero [54th in 17:40] both also ran well under 18 minutes.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 