Boilermaker 5K M30-34: Conway Runs Away With It

• Brendan Conway (Ridgefield Park, NJ) won the M30-34 race in 17:12 at a 5:32/mi clip — 31 seconds clear of second place in a field of 128.
• Nikolas Rebovich was the only other man under 18 minutes, finishing 2nd in 17:43 (5:42/mi).
• A significant gap separated the top two from the rest: Spencer Luboff took 3rd in 19:17 — a full 1:34 behind Rebovich.
• Places 4 through 6 were a genuine battle: Joseph Abed El Latif (4th, 21:29), Ross Kersja (5th, 21:46), and John Salamy (6th, 21:49) finished within 20 seconds of each other.

In 84°F heat with humidity pressing down on Utica, Brendan Conway made it look straightforward. The 30-year-old from Ridgefield Park, NJ, crossed in 17:12 — a 5:32/mi average that put him in a class of his own in the M30-34 field. Nikolas Rebovich of Pawtucket, RI gave chase and earned a strong 2nd-place finish in 17:43, but Conway's 31-second margin was never seriously threatened. Those two men separated themselves from 126 others on a hot July morning.

The real drama in the M30-34 race came further back. Spencer Luboff (Philadelphia, PA) ran a solid 3rd in 19:17, but the 1:34 gap between him and Rebovich meant the podium was effectively settled well before the finish line. Then came a tightly contested battle for 4th through 6th: Joseph Abed El Latif (Saratoga Springs, NY) came home 4th in 21:29, Ross Kersja (New York Mills, NY) was 5th in 21:46, and local runner John Salamy (New Hartford, NY) finished 6th in 21:49 — just 20 seconds spanning all three men.

Behind them, Joseph Scharf (7th, 22:41), Jonathon Marchione (8th, 22:56), and Jeffrey Emerson (9th, 23:11) rounded out the top ten alongside Nathaniel Zera (10th, 23:29), with the field stretching all the way through 128 finishers. On a day that tested everyone's heat tolerance, Conway's wire-to-wire dominance was the defining story of the M30-34 race.