Navy Men's Track and Field Wins Quad Meet

Jan. 22, 2011

Annapolis, Md. - The Navy men's track and field team (8-1) tallied 174 team points to defeat Temple (135.5), Rutgers (129) and Rhode Island (113.5) in a four-team quad meet at the Wesley A. Brown Field House on Saturday afternoon.

"We had a good team effort today," said head coach Stephen Cooksey. "We want to make sure we are progressing and not stagnating throughout the season. The team got better right down the line this week, from the triple jump through the short and long sprints and the relays."

The Mids won three individual events and also claimed the 4x800m relay. The 4x800m team clocked a 7:53.60 and was comprised of freshmen Chris Burns and Sean Rynning and juniors Lucas Connelly and George Stevenson. Navy edged Rutgers in the event by .10 seconds and narrowly missed the IC4A-qualifying standard (7:53.00).

The 4x400m relay team of senior Lorenzo Armijo, sophomore Kolton Kempel, junior Alexander Jackson and senior David Ash was able to hit the IC4A mark with a third-place finish in the race (3:19.14).

Sophomore Mitch Simmonds won the 60-meter hurdles with a personal-record and IC4A time of 8.22.

Senior David Ash and junior Matthew Evers placed 1-2 in the 800-meter run with a pair of IC4A-qualifying times. Ash clocked a 1:52.88 and Evers was at 1:53.14.

Although Navy rested a number of its top-distance runners, the Mids had the top-four finishers in the mile and claimed spots 2-4 in the 3,000-meter run. Junior Kenneth Bunnell posted a new personal record and an IC4A time of 4:13.94 to win the mile run. Junior Michael Sheehan placed second in the event (4:15.59).

Senior Robert Alvarado finished second in the 3,000-meter run with a time of 8:26.42 and freshman Alexander Merrall placed third (8:26.85). Both times were under the IC4A-qualifying standard.

"We had some of our distance guys resting today so it was crucial to get some good performances from some of our other kids, who will be giving us more depth down the road," said Cooksey.

Freshman Brett Bogaard established a new personal record in placing fifth in the 60-meter dash (7.17). Bogaard also finished fifth in the 200-meter dash (22.46) to become the only Mid to score in two individual events on the day.

Junior Isaac Teichgrab placed third in the 200 with a 22.36, the best time in the event for Navy all season. Junior Alexander Jackson became the first Midshipman to go under 50.00 in the 400-meter dash when he hit 49.74 to place second in the event.

Freshman Daniel Park placed fourth in the triple jump with a personal-best leap of 45'11-1/4" (14.00m).

Junior Chris Boniwell's throw of 48'2-3/4" (14.70m) earned him a third place in the shot put and senior Nicholas Porter placed fourth in the weight throw (54'7-1/4", 16.64m).

Sophomore Miles Snelgrove placed third in the long jump (22'3-1/2", 6.79m), junior Joshua Houston was third in the high jump (6'6-1/2", 1.99m) and junior Paul Neidhardt was third in the pole vault (14'9", 4.50m).

Rutgers' Aaron Younger improved upon his own Wesley A. Brown Field House facility record with a 1:02.73 to win the 500m run.

Navy will host the seven-team Wesley A. Brown Invitational next Saturday.

Team Scores