Dec. 4, 2010
Complete Results | Photo Gallery 
ANNAPOLIS, Md. - The Navy men's indoor track and field team opened its season by claiming five individual titles at the Navy Invitational at the Wesley A. Brown Field House on Saturday afternoon. There was no team scoring in the 12-school field.
"Our middle distance to distance guys, as we expected, ran very well," said head coach Stephen Cooksey. "We had three guys get IC4A-qualifying times and that gave us a great start."
The trio of IC4A-qualifying distance runners were senior Andrew Hanko, juniors Dominic Della Pelle and Jeremy Haney. Hanko took an early lead in the 5,000-meter run and ran most of the race by himself to cruise to a winning-time of 14:29.37 in the first running event of the day.
Della Pelle won the 3,000-meter run with a time of 8:20.01 and Haney was victorious in the mile, coming in with a personal best time of 4:14.66.
The distance crew also showed their depth with senior Robert Alvarado placing second in the 5,000 (14:50.20) behind Hanko and sophomore Dean Black finishing fifth (15:00.20).
Junior Michael Sheehan finished second behind Della Pelle in the 3,000 with a time of 8:35.36 and freshman Clay Elward was fifth (8:37.21). Freshman Alexander Merrall was yet another top-five distance runner, as he placed fourth in the mile (4:22.64).
The Mids placed three runners in the top-five of the 800-meter run. Junior Matthew Evers placed second with a time of 1:54.93, barely missing the IC4A qualification standard of 1:54.90. Junior George Stevenson was fourth in the event (1:56.42) and junior Lucas Connolly was fifth (1:56.91).
Nicholas Porter earned a solid start to his senior season by winning the weight toss with a mark of 53'.
"It wasn't the best throw he is capable of making, but it was good for him to get the win in the event," said Cooksey. "It puts him in the mode that he knows he can compete and that he can compete well. Those kinds of things are very helpful to get us started in the first meet of the season."
Senior Patrick Norwood placed second in the weight throw (49'9-1/4") to Porter and freshman Zachary Duncavage was fifth (48'8"). Junior Chris Boniwell was fourth in the shot put (48'3-1/4").
Navy was also impressive in the pole vault. Junior Nathan Woodason won the event with a clearance of 14'9" and junior Paul Neidhardt was third (14'3-1/4"). Freshman Ryan Kochert was fourth in the event (13'9-1/4") sophomore John Smith was sixth.
Junior Joshua Houston placed fourth in the high jump (6'6-1/4") and sophomore Miles Snelgrove was fifth in the long jump (22'3").
Mitch Simmonds ran well in the hurdles and just missed qualifying for the IC4As. He set a new personal record of 8.29 to place fifth in the finals of the 60-meter hurdles.
Freshman Patrick Edmond provided Navy with a boost in the sprints. Edmond placed 10th in the 200-meter dash with a time of 22.58 and his mark of 7.29 was Navy's second-fastest 60-meter dash time behind classmate Brett Bogaard (7.21).
Hampton's Reggie Dixon set two new Wesley A. Brown Field House records by winning both the 60-meter dash (6.70) and the 200-meter dash (21.11).
The Mids will return to action when they host Princeton in a dual meet on January 8.
New Wesley A. Brown Field House Records
60m Dash - Reggie Dixon, Hampton (6.70)200m Dash - Reggie Dixon, Hampton (21.11)60m Hurdles - Chris Kinney, Georgetown (7.84)
