Dean was highly competitive in all three of his heats during the Houghton Highlander Invitational on Saturday. He broke his personal record in the 800-meter run, clocking in a time of 2:07.11 to finish 13th overall but won his heat. He began the heat being boxed out to stay at the back of the pack after his first 200-meters. Dean then passed seven runners to jump up to third place after the 400-meter mark before chasing down and passing the last two runners, winning his heat in the final 30 meters of the race. Dean actually started his day in the same manner, finishing 12th overall in the men’s mile and was eighth among runners not competing unattached. He finished second in his heat after starting the event in sixth place, clocking a time of 4:46.65. Dean ended the day in the 4x400-meter relay team where he ran the third leg. The team finished second with a time of 3:38.40 after almost facing disaster when runners got tripped up in front of Dean, handing off to anchor leg, Jonathan Hodges, forcing Dean to hop over for the hand-off and giving Hodges the best chance to chase down the last runner from Oneonta to claim second.
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