April 14, 2007
Results
ANNAPOLIS, Md. - Navy men's track & field junior Paul Harris (Woodbury, Minn.) dropped down to win two sprint events and assisted on another event victory, but proved to not be enough as Army defeated the Mids, 103-100, in the Star Meet on Saturday at Ingram Field. The loss drops Navy's record to 8-1 on the year.
Navy held the lead for much of the afternoon and carried an 83-79 advantage claiming first in the 200-meter dash. However, Army responded with victories in the triple jump, high jump and 5,000-meter run to win the meet.
"Our guys competed really hard and never folded, even when things started going Army's way," stated Navy head coach Stephen Cooksey. "We really concentrated on some of the softer events and started making those changes early on. Our guys started to slip a little bit later on and Army began to take some of those points we earned from them back from us."
Harris opened his day with a NCAA regional qualifying time of 46.73 seconds to win the 400-meter dash. The Navy junior then bumped down to the 200-meter dash, an event he had never competed in before Saturday, and won the event with an IC4A-qualifying time of 21.55 seconds with a standing start. He finished his day running the anchor leg of the 4x400-meter relay that completed the race with a time of 3:12.19, an IC4A Championship mark.
"Paul truly had one great meet today," said Cooksey. "We really needed him in the 200-meter dash and came through for us. We knew that we could count on him to make the transition, as he has on of the faster turnovers on the team."
Navy junior thrower Bo Lawson (Fredon, N.J.) came up with an exciting first-place effort in the javelin throw. Army's Mike Nulk uncorked a throw of 205'5" (62.62 meters) in his last toss to take the lead, but Lawson answered with a career-best, NCAA regional-qualifying distance of 210'2" (64.07 meters) during his final throw.
The Midshipmen went first and second in three events on Saturday. Junior thrower Darryl Hunter (Des Moines, Iowa) won the shot put for the fifth time this season with an IC4A mark 54'2-1/2" (16.52 meters), while classmate Andre Barber (Carrollton, Texas) placed second with a distance of 50'7-1/4" (15.42 meters). Barber later went on to win the discus throw with a toss of 153'3" (46.72 meters).
Senior distance runner Michael Niemi (Duluth, Minn.) opened the track portion of the meet with a first-place time of 9:15.94 in the 3,000-meter run, while junior John Olsen (Staten Island, N.Y.) followed in second with a 9:21.46 showing. Junior hurdler Ron Belany (Haiku, Hawai'i) won the 110-meter high hurdles with a 14.94-second clocking and freshman Matthew Hanley (Rapid City, S.D.) came in second place with a time of 15.11 seconds.
In addition to Harris, Navy's first-place 4x400-meter relay team was comprised of junior William Ricks (Sussex, Va.), senior Cameron Lindsay (Kenersville, N.C.) and junior Craig Meekins (Baldwin, N.Y.). Meekins won the 800-meter run earlier in the day with his 1:52.99 effort.
The Midshipmen will return to action on April 26-28, when they travel to Franklin Field to partake in the Penn Relays.
