Matt Lawder of West Orange and Shannon McKenna of Montclair were the top male and female finishers at the 2019 UNICO Labor Day 5K. Lawder led the pack with a blistering time of 16.01:22, while McKenna finished in 20:10.06. Jackson Levine, a 14-year-old racer from Summit, got cheers at the finish line for his 17:57.67 time, which earned him third place.
Ian MacKenzie was the top finisher for Verona residents, with a time of 19:28.21, which was good enough for ninth place overall. Mayor Jack McEvoy had a 24:08.24 race, edging out Township Attorney Brian Aloia, who had a time of 24:50.14. You can see all the Verona finishes here, and the full race results here.
There were 384 racers in this year’s 5K and, judging by the number of hands that went up when race announcer Santi Condorelli asked how many were younger than 36, most hadn’t even been born when the race debuted 36 years ago. Verona UNICO, an Italian-American service organization, organizes the event with the Essex Running Club, and it serves as a major fundraiser for UNICO’s community donations and high school scholarships.
