What Conner Mantz — and his coach — said following strong showing at the NYC Half

Conner Mantz, the former BYU NCAA champion, placed second in Sunday’s New York City half marathon, just six seconds behind Kenya’s Abel Kipchumba.

Mantz covered the 13.1-mile race in 59 minutes, 15 seconds, averaging 4:32 per mile. He finished 46 seconds ahead of third-place finisher Hillary Bor.

Two months ago Mantz broke an 18-year-old American record in the Houston Half Marathon with a time of 59:17. He surpassed that time Sunday, but it won’t count as an American record because it occurred on a point-to-point course (rather than a loop course).

“(Mantz) looked tough as nails as always,” said Ed Eyestone, the BYU distance coach who has continued to oversee Mantz’s training since he turned pro. “He led much of the race and was the last guy with the ultimate winner.”

Eyestone said the race was a tuneup for the Boston Marathon, which will be held in six weeks.

“It was a great race for me,” said Mantz afterward. “Coach gave me one race to do (before Boston) and this is the race I chose because I wanted to be in a race with good foreign athletes, and I wanted to be in a race that had hills and I thought this was great preparation (for Boston).”

Mantz, the two-time NCAA cross-country champion while competing for BYU, has been on an extended roll on the road racing scene. He won last year’s U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials and went on to place eighth in the Olympic marathon.

Last November he was sixth in the New York Marathon and a year earlier he was sixth in the Chicago Marathon in which he produced the fourth-fastest marathon time ever by an American.