Sept. 12, 2009

Results | Photo Gallery

ANNAPOLIS, Md. - Led by individual winner Andrew Hanko (Jr./Montville, N.J.), the Navy men's cross country team cruised past the field of nine teams in the Navy Invitational on Saturday morning at the USNA Cross Country Course.

The Midshipmen produced six of the top-seven times to rack up an impressive team score of 19 points. Patriot League foe American landed in second place with 72 points, followed by Loyola's 137 points, Johns Hopkins's 143 points, George Washington's 161 points, UMBC's 162 points, Elizabethtown's 165 points and Mount St. Mary's and Morgan State's 179 points.

"The first mile of the course was kind of rough, but I was not worried about the times today," stated Navy head coach Al Cantello. "I'm pleased with how we ran and that we did not have any injuries. It's now time to look ahead to next weekend up at Colgate with perennial Big East power Syracuse."

Hanko, a First-Team All-Patriot League runner from a season ago, averaged a 4:57.2 mile over the 8k course to lead the field of 78 runners with a time of 24:37.1. The Navy junior finished 12.3 seconds ahead of second-place runner Justus David from Morgan State.

James Pearson (So./Bloomfield Hills, Mich.) led the pack of five-straight Navy runners to cross the finish line with a third-place time of 24:50.2. Cody Rome (So./Eagle, Idaho) finished fourth with a 25:03.0 clocking, followed by Ken Bunnell's (So./St. Johnsbury, Vt.) fifth-place time of 25:07.5 and team captain Chris Horel's (Sr./Belford, N.J.) sixth-place showing of 25:08.1. Dominic DellaPelle (So./Kennett Square, Pa.) rounded out the pack with a 25:13.7 performance for seventh place and Jeremy Haney (So./Palmyra, Va.) completed the scoring-seven with a time of 25:20.8 for 10th place overall.

The Midshipmen will return to action next Saturday when they head up to Hamilton, N.Y., to compete at the Colgate Invitational. Race time is scheduled for 11 a.m.