Former SU star Marty Hehir runs 7th-best marathon time by an American

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Syracuse graduate Marty Hehir posted the seventh-fastest marathon time by an American runner en route to winning The Marathon Project event on Sunday.

Hehir (2:08.59), Colin Bennie (2:09.38) and Paige Stoner — all former members of the SU cross country team — competed together in Chandler, Arizona, for the first-place prize of $5,000. Hehir and Bennie were key members of the 2015 championship team, where they finished ninth and eighth in NCAA’s, respectively.

A Washingtonville, New York, native, Hehir received the Male Performance of the Year at the 2015 Cuse Awards after setting the course record at the Atlantic Coast Conference Cross Country Championships. He also received All-American honors. 

Hehir runs professionally for Reebok Boston Track Club alongside Bennie and Stoner. The trio also ran together for the Orange in 2014. Former Syracuse coach Chris Fox and former track star Justyn Knight are part of the club, too. 

Bennie placed third in the Marathon Project race, finishing with a 4:57 pace — two seconds slower than Hehir’s 4:55 winning pace.

An aspiring anesthesiologist at Sidney Kimmel Medical College, Hehir spent the weeks leading up to the race in Arizona working in a COVID-19 intensive care unit. Prior to the race, Hehir said it was going to “take a special race and a special time to win.”