Mids Finish Strong, Take Second at Patriot League Championships

May 2, 2009

Complete Results | Final Heptathlon Scores

WEST POINT, N.Y. - Senior Carey Young (Virginia Beach, Va.) and junior Abby Gesecki (Nanticoke, Pa.) both claimed individual titles in their respective events, as the Navy women's track team closed out strong and secured a second-place finish on the second and final day at Patriot League Outdoor Track & Field Championships.

The Midshipmen women finished with 119 team points, behind only a deep and talented Bucknell squad which won the league championship for the ninth time in 11 years with a team score of 188.5 points. Navy has now finished second three times in the last four years and has earned 11 third-or-better finishes in the program's 12 trips to the Patriot League Championship.

Picked to finish seventh in the preseason, Colgate earned a third-place finish with an admirable 94-point effort, followed by Army in fourth (88 pts), Holy Cross (80 pts) and Lehigh (54.5 pts). Rounding out the eight-team field was Lafayette in seventh with 42 points and American in eighth with 16.

"We had a pretty good meet," said Navy head coach Carla Criste. "We were very excited about some of the performances we received this weekend. A lot of our girls stepped it up and came away with some personal-best. Overall, we were pretty happy with our showing."

Young and senior classmate Maureen Dooley (New Durham, Conn.) went 1-2 in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, clocking in with times of 10:58.02 and 11:07.59, respectively.

After scoring in a pair of events at this winter's league championship, Young, who is in her first full season as a member of the track program, collects her first career individual league title. Dooley, meanwhile, earns second-team all-league honors in the steeplechase for the third-consecutive season.

Gesecki was the first to cross the finish in the 400m, pacing the field with a career-best 56.81 performance. The Nanticoke, Pa. native later ran an ECAC-qualifying 55.71 split in Navy's fourth-place 4x400m effort.

Junior Amy Watson (Hampstead, Md.) and freshman Arian Davis (Poughkeepsie, N.Y.) both also delivered all-league performances for Navy on Saturday.

Watson collected a pair of runner-up finishes in the 1,500m (4:40.96), where she finished only 1.08 seconds off the pace set by Bucknell's Stephanie Fulmer, and 5,000m races (17:31.13).

In the heptathlon, Davis registered the 10th-highest score total in school history with 4,237 points to finish second overall, just 15 points back of Army's Tonya Stallard (4,252 pts).

Sophomore Ashley Boykin (Radcliff, Ky.), who carried the eighth seed into the finals of the 100m dash, ran a career-best 12.35 to conclude a strong weekend with third-place honors. Freshman Ashley Aitken (Yuma, Ariz.) also ran her second PR in as many days in the finals of the 100m hurdles, finishing in third with her time of 14.58.

Navy also received a trio of third-place field performances from junior Krystina Johnson (Savannah, Ga.) and sophomores Ashley Bucholz (DeBerry, Fla.) and Joy Nameth (Walden, Colo.).

Johnson soared to a career-best in the high jump with a clearance of the bar at 5-3 (1.60m), Bucholz notched a PR of her own in the triple jump with a 37-5.25 (11.41m) mark while Nameth hurled a career-best toss of 130-9 (39.86m) in the discus.

The Navy women will have the week off before they return to action May 15-17 in Princeton, N.J. for the ECAC Championships.

2009 PL Outdoor Track ChampionshipFinal Women's Team Scores (22 events scored)Pl. School   Pts.1. Bucknell     188.52. Navy     1193. Colgate  944. Army     845. Holy Cross   806. Lehigh   54.57. Lafayette    428. American 16
Team Champions:                  BucknellTrack Athlete of the Meet:      Curry Knox, ColgateField Performers of the Meet:   Amy Mantush, BucknellRookie of the Meet:             Sarah Bella, BucknellCoach of the Year:              Laura Nardelli, ColgateScholar-Athlete of the Year:    Erica Ziel, Navy
Navy HonoreesFirst-Team All-Patriot LeagueAbby Gesecki   - 400m (56.81)Carey Young    - 3,000m steeplechase (10:58.02)
Second-Team All-Patriot LeagueArian Davis    - Heptathlon (4,237 pts.)Lexa Gass      - 10,000m (37:18.52*)Amy Watson     - 1,500m (4:40.96)               -  5,000m (17:31.13)Maureen Dooley - 3,000m steeplechase (11:07.59)