Conner Mantz’s remarkable 2025 season continued on Labor Day with a record-breaking performance at the Faxon Law New Haven Road Race, where he won the USATF 20K Championships in 56 minutes, 16 seconds, smashing a 27-year-old course record and lowering his own American record in the process.
The 28-year-old from Utah outlasted defending champion Hilary Bor and Isai Rodriguez in a hard-fought race that saw all three athletes trading the lead before Mantz made his move near the finish.
“I made a really hard push for about 60 seconds, but a little after 60 seconds, I could tell that Hilary [Bor] was still there, so I pushed for another hard 30 seconds,” Mantz said. “I pushed and I pushed. I looked back and I saw that Hilary was gone, so I knew at that point I could win.”
Mantz’s time broke the previous men’s course record of 57:37, which had stood since 1998, and also shaved seven seconds off his own American record of 56:23, a split he recorded during the Houston Half Marathon in January.
The course in New Haven measured just under 12.5 miles.
According to DyeStat, Mantz hit 10 kilometers in around 28 minutes and reached 10 miles in approximately 45:30, running steady 4:30-per-mile splits in humid, 60-degree conditions.
He averaged 4:32 per mile over the full distance.
“It might be up there,” Mantz said when asked if the race was one of his best. “I was hoping that I would feel really good throughout this whole race, but man, this was tough.”
The win marks Mantz’s third American road record of the year and another major milestone in what’s become a breakthrough campaign.
He opened 2025 by running 59:17 to break the U.S. half-marathon record and has maintained strong form ever since, including a 2:05:08 fourth-place finish at the Boston Marathon in April, the fastest time ever by an American on that course.
Mantz only lightly tapered for New Haven, running 98 miles in the week leading up to the race, according to his Strava. He’s been consistently logging around 120 miles per week through the summer.
His next major goal is the Chicago Marathon in October, where he will attempt to break Khalid Khannouchi’s American marathon record of 2:05:38, set in 2002. Chicago’s flat, record-eligible course presents an ideal setting for that attempt. Mantz’s 56:16 at New Haven is equivalent to a 2:06:13 marathon, based on World Athletics scoring tables.
