March 31, 2007

Final Stats

ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- The Navy men's track and field team posted victories in eight of the 19 events on the day to tally 212 points and win a five-team meet held Saturday at Ingram Field in Annapolis.

Princeton totaled 142 points to place second behind the Mids, Penn placed third with 117 points, Rutgers followed in fourth place with 87 points and Colgate scored 28 points on the day to finish in fifth place.

"It was a good meet for us," said Navy head coach Stephen Cooksey. "Overall our performances have improved. There are still some spots we need to clean up, but we are moving in the right direction."

One of the standouts on the day for Navy was Ron Belany (Jr., Haiku, Hawaii), who won both the 110-meter hurdles and the long jump. His winning time of 14.81 in the hurdles and his leap of 7.10 meters are both IC4A qualifying marks.

Paul Harris (Jr., Woodbury, Mass.) also qualified for the IC4A meet in the 800-meter dash by posting a winning time of 1:51.63 in the event, and helped Navy's 4x400 relay team to both a victory and a berth at the IC4A meet with a clocking of 3:11.78.

"We were hoping to get Paul his NCAA qualifying time in the half mile today," said Cooksey. "That didn't happen, but I feel confident he will achieve it."

Andrew Grant (So., Athens, Ga.) led a 1-2-3-4 Navy finish in the 1500-meter run by posting a time of 3:56.36. He narrowly edged Lucas Burke (Jr., Bakersfield, Calif.) in the race by three-tenths of a second.

Also winning on the track for Navy was Ben Kozy (Jr., Houston, Texas), who recorded a time of 14:44.04 to win the 5000 meters, and John Olsen (Jr., Staten Island, N.Y.) who won the 3000-meter steeplechase with a time of 9:13.62. Both Navy athletes edged teammates for their victories, with Kozy topping John Kress (Jr., Colorado Springs, Colo.) by 1.7 seconds and Olsen defeating Michael Niemi (Sr., Duluth, Minn.) by 1.2 seconds, respectively.

"Our steeplechase runners really dropped time from last week," said Cooksey.

In addition to Belany winning the long jump, Darryl Hunter (Jr., Des Moines, Iowa) also enjoyed success on the field for the Mids, throwing the shot put to a winning distance of 16.70 meters. The throw bettered his previous best toss of the season of 16.43 meters.

Navy will next compete at the Texas Relays starting Wednesday in Austin, Texas, and will return to Annapolis on April 14 to play host to Army.

Final Standings
1. Navy, 212 points
2. Princeton, 142
3. Penn, 117
4. Rutgers, 87
5. Colgate, 28