Oct. 2, 2009
Results
BETHLEHEM, Pa. - Led by Andrew Hanko's (Jr./Montville, N.J.) 13th-place time out of 386 runners, the Navy men's cross country team produced a fourth-place team score among 42 schools at the Paul Short Run on Friday morning.
Indiana won the meet with 44 points, followed by No. 7 Iona's 55 points and No. 19 N.C. State's 87 points. In total, 23 of the Division I teams were ranked in their respective region's top 15 coming into the race.
The Midshipmen, ranked 14th in the Mid-Atlantic Region coming into Friday, tallied 204 points to boast the lowest team score among any school in the region. Navy bested nine schools that it was ranked behind in the region: La Salle (6th in region, 9th - 299 points), St. Joseph's (4th in region, 10th - 323 points), Penn (9th in region, 14th - 500 points), Bucknell (12th in region, 19th - 578 points), Duquesne (7th in region, 21st - 614 points), No. 30 Princeton (2nd in region, 24th - 678 points), Pittsburgh (8th in region, 28th - 728 points), Lehigh (10th in region, 32nd - 794 points) and Villanova (3rd in region, 42nd - 1271 points).
In addition, Navy finished with a lower team score the service academy rival Army, who placed 15th with 512 points. For the second-straight week, the Midshipmen had their top-seven runners cross the finish line before Army's fourth runner. The first-three Navy runners completed the 8k course before Army's top finisher.
"Considering the week we had, with six-week exams and such, I'm quite happy," stated Navy head coach Al Cantello. "This was a great inter-sectional classic. It was a very fast race and now we have two weeks until we go to Army. We've done well, but it is their course."
Hanko, the reigning Patriot League Runner of the Week, delivered a stellar time of 23:54 to finish only 14 seconds behind individual champion Ryan Hill from N.C. State.
Cody Rome (So./Eagle, Idaho) finished 31st overall with a time of 24:21 and was soon followed by James Pearson's (So./Bloomfield Hills, Mich.) 24:22 clocking for 34th place. Dominic DellaPelle (So./Kennett Square, Pa.) landed in 59th place with a 24:40 showing, while Dean Black (Fr./Colorado Springs, Colo.) rounded out the team's top five with a 72nd-place time of 24:45.
The Midshipmen will close out the regular season on Friday, Oct. 16, when they head up to West Point to take on Army in the Star Meet at 4 p.m.
