Fowkes Wins Montauk Mile For The Fourth Time

Ryan Fowkes, a standout runner when he attended East Hampton High School and now a record-breaking track athlete at George Washington University, won the Montauk Mile for the fourth time on Sunday, June 12, besting a field of 116 other finishers.

Fowkes, 21, finished well ahead of the pack with a course-record time of 4 minutes and 26.77 seconds, meaning that his goal of breaking the 4-minute mark in the mile will have to wait for another day.

“It’s still a really big deal for everyone who runs,” said Fowkes, whose school-record time of 3:43 in the 1,500 meters at George Washington equates to a 4-minute mile pace. “It’s the gold standard.”

The standard was set for the first time in 1954 by Roger Bannister of England, who set the world record at the time at 3:59.4. Since that day, several thousand runners have eclipsed the 4-minute mark and 82 collegiate athletes hit the standard just last year, according to the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA).

The current world record in the mile is 3:43.13, set by Hicham El Guerrouj of Morocco in 1999.

Fowkes, who also holds his George Washington’s school record in the 800 meters with a time of 1:52, is entering his senior year, but has two more years of athletic eligibility because of lost time during the pandemic. Fowkes won the 1,500-meter race at the Atlantic-10 Championships this past spring, and now has his sights set on the NCAA Championship meet next year.

Finishing second behind Fowkes on Sunday was another highly-touted former Bonacker in Erik Engstrom, 24, who crossed the finish line in 4:47.90. James Burke, 24, rounded out the top three with a time of 4:49.09.

East Hampton sophomore Dylan Cashin, who will compete in the 2,000-meter steeplechase this weekend at the Nike Outdoor Nationals meet in Oregon, was the top female finisher on Sunday, crossing in 5:46.78, followed by her classmate, Ryleigh O’Donnell, who finished in 5:47.81. Francesca Frasco, 21, was the third female to finish, doing so with a time of 6:08.89.

Complete results are available online at elitefeats.com.

“This year we had double the number of participants as last year,” said Jennifer Fowkes, Ryan’s mom and treasurer of the Old Montauk Athletic Club (OMAC), which organized the Montauk Mile for the sixth time on Sunday. “2020 was virtual, and last year was our first year back. Last year we had 63 finishers. This year we had 140 registered and 117 finishers. We raised about $4,000.”

As current members of the East Hampton girls cross country team, Cashin and O’Donnell will directly benefit from the success of Sunday’s race, since OMAC will use the majority of the funds raised to pay for the boys and girls teams to compete at an invitational meet in Rhode Island in the fall.

“I think the running community out here as a whole is such a supportive and inclusive community,” Jennifer Fowkes said. “Maybe it’s something in the water, but Long Island consistently has some of the best runners in the country. I love watching these kids compete.”