Oct. 27, 2007
Results
EASTON, Pa. - Navy men's cross country runner John Olsen (Sr./Staten Island, N.Y.) paced the team with a fourth-place time as the Midshipmen finished in a close second at the Patriot League Championship on Saturday morning at Lafayette's Metzgar Fields.
American won the Patriot League title for the sixth-straight year with a team score of 47 points, only one fewer than Navy's 48-point effort for second place. The one-point separation between the top-two scores marks the closest finish in the Patriot League's history.
Placing third was Army with its 78 points, followed by Bucknell's 95 points, Lehigh's 121 points, Colgate's 158 points, host Lafayette's 188 points and Holy Cross's 221 points.
The championship came down to Navy and American's final runners, as the Eagles held a two-point lead (30-32) after each team had its first-four runners cross the finish line. Andrew Hanko (Fr./Montville, N.J.), the Patriot League Outstanding Rookie of the Meet, rounded out Navy's scoring five with a 16th-place time of 26:44.9. Needing American to finish two spots behind Hanko to claim at least a tie of the league title, American's Kyle Gaffney edged Colgate's Bryan Kretschmer by 0.8 second for 17th place and the league crown.
Despite heavy rains that soaked the Mid-Atlantic region over the past-four days, Olsen earned First-Team All-Patriot League kudos with a 25:39.8 clocking. He finished 46.2 seconds off individual champion Brendan Fennell's 25:00.0 effort from American. He has boasted the team's fastest time in four of his six races on the year.
Earning first-team all-league honors for the second-consecutive year was team captain John Kress (Sr./Colorado Springs, Colo.). Kress followed Olsen across the finish line for fifth place and a 25:46.2 clocking.
Andrew Grant (Jr./Athens, Ga.) and Bill Prom (Jr./New Berlin, Wis.) both earned Second-Team All-Patriot League recognition by placing among the field's top-14 runners. Grant finished ninth with a time of 26:18.0, while Prom landed 14th courtesy of his 26:39.8 clocking.
The Midshipmen, who came into this week ranked seventh in the Mid-Atlantic Region by the USTFCCCA, will head to the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Region Championship on Saturday, Nov. 10, in Bethlehem, Pa. The top-two teams at the regional will earn a spot at the NCAA Championship on Monday, Nov. 19, in Terre Haute, Ind.
