By MARY ALBI
BRONX -- In the end, Darien’s Alex Ostberg felt he could have gone faster. And for his competitors, that’s a scary thing to think about.
Saturday afternoon on a rain-soaked and muddy day at Van Cortland Park, Ostberg raced to a winning time of 11 minutes and 57 seconds to claim the Eastern States boys’ title at the Manhattan Invite. His impressive time was the second all-time fastest time on the course next to Edward Cheserek, who is now a sophomore running at Oregon and won the NCAA Cross Country Championship last year.
Ostberg and Cheserek are the only two individuals to clock under 12 minutes on the 4,000 meter course.
“I think I could have gotten the course record,” Ostberg said. ""It was a little muddy out there. The course drained pretty nicely (though). I was really happy (with my time); I can't argue."
Ostberg, who likes to take it out hard and said he prefers to run an honest race, led from the get-go Saturday.
Ostberg established himself up front where he wanted to be and worked his way up toward the high point of the course and then it was pretty much downhill from there, when he pushed it into another level.
“It’s a 4K course, so there’s no time to rest,” Ostberg said. “After I got to that high point, I had to switch gears and really try and open up my stride going downhill and establish more of a lead.”
Ostberg’s biggest competition throughout the race was second-place finisher Bryce Millar of Fayetteville-Manlius (New York), who ran 12:02.
“The competition was really strong today, the guy who came in second is now No. 3 all-time on the course,” Ostberg said. “I happen to have the third best guy all-time running right on my heels today. It was very good for me to have people to run with.”
Ostberg’s next race will be the FCIAC Championships on Thursday, Oct. 16 at Waveny Park in New Canaan.