Davis earns Runner of the Year award

Four-time prep state champion Jordan Davis, originally from Cresaptown who now resides in Remsen, N.Y., was recently honored as New England Runner Magazine's 2009 New York Male Runner of the Year.

As a senior Camper at Allegany High School, Davis, won the 2002 boys' Class 1A cross country championship with a time of 17 minutes and 7 seconds on the hilly Hereford High School course. Davis and also captured track titles in the 800, 1600 and 3200.

After running for the Syracuse Orange cross country and track team as a graduate student, Davis is working with the distance unit and head coach Chris Fox as a graduate assistant. He was a 2007 All-Region runner and earned two top-20 finishes and was the previous Syracuse indoor record-holder with a clip of 4:02.79. The mark broke a 30-year-old Orange record.

On Aug. 8, he finished second in the Bergen 5K in Rochester, N.Y., with a time of 14:50. About a month later, he earned the first of four straight road wins including a 15K time of 46:45 on Sept. 6 in Buffalo and a 30:20 clocking on Sept. 19 in the Oswego (N.Y.) 10K.

On Nov. 8, Davis ran with current US 25K record holder Fernando Cabada for nearly six miles before settling for second.

Davis told a local reporter afterward that Cabada "is a somebody. I am a nobody."

Not anymore.

On Nov. 26, Davis finished 15th in the ridiculously competitive Manchester Road Race, a 4,748-mile race in Manchester, Conn. He finished with a time of 22:40 - a blazing pace of 4:46.4 per mile.

Davis transferred to Syracuse from Auburn and is working towards a graduate degree in social work. To be eligible for the New England award, Davis beat out former Syracuse teammate Kyle Heath for New York honors.

Email Kevin at run@mountainMDmarathon.org.