May 13, 2012
Complete Results | Photo Gallery 
PRINCETON, N.J. - The Navy men's track and field team tied for 19th place with 17 team points at the IC4A Outdoor Championship at Princeton's Weaver Stadium this weekend. Navy produced four IC4A All-East performers, including two repeat selections. George Mason won the team title with 59 points.
"Our guys did a good job coming off of finals this week and we had some really good performances," head coach Stephen Cooksey said. "Cody [Rome] ran well, Chris Ricks was able to go out with a PR in his last meet, Miles [Snelgrove] had a fairly decent throw in the javelin and Mark [Vetere] was just tough as nails today."
Senior Cody Rome had Navy's top showing by placing second in the 1,500m run with a personal record 3:45.56, the 10th best time in school history. This is the second time Rome has earned IC4A All-East honors. Rome was the runner-up in the 1,500m and the 5,000m at the Patriot League Championship last weekend.
Senior Dominic Della Pelle also advanced to the finals of the 1,500m run, placing ninth with a time of 3:54.80, which was one spot away from the top eight cutoff for All-East honors. Della Pelle ran a 3:48.01 during the trials, the fifth-best time.
Junior Miles Snelgrove placed fifth in the javelin to earn his first All-East accolade by posted a mark of 210-11 (64.30m). Snelgrove won the javelin at the Patriot League Championship last weekend.
Freshman Aaron Zack placed 11th in the javelin with a throw of 194-3 (59.22m). It was Zack's second-best throw of the season, behind only the mark he registered to place second at the outdoor league meet last weekend.
Senior outdoor team captain Chris Ricks posted a personal record in the hammer throw in the last meet of his career. Ricks recorded a distance of 187-11 (57.29m) to place sixth and earn All-East honors.
Freshman Mark Vetere, already a two-time Patriot League pole vault champion, placed seventh in the pole vault at the IC4A meet to earn All-East honors with a personal record height of 16-8 (5.08m), which he cleared on his third and final attempt. The height is tied for the ninth best in school history.
Vetere's previous personal record was a 16-2¾ (4.95m), which he posted last week in winning the pole vault at the league championship to earn rookie of the meet honors. Sophomore Ryan Kochert cleared 15-8¼ (4.78m) to place 14th in the pole vault.
Navy had two athletes place in the top 20 of the discus throw. Sophomore Zack Duncavage was 18th at 158-6 (48.32) and senior Chris Boniwell was 19th at 158-4 (48.26m).
Senior Lucas Connelly ran a 1:52.14 to place 16th in the prelims of the 800m and senior Matt Evers was 19th at 1:52.38. Junior Mitch Simmonds placed 12th in the prelims of the 110m hurdles with a time of 14.49.
Senior Josh Houston placed 10th in the high jump by clearing 6-8 (2.03m).
Navy's 4x100m relay team of Simmonds, Brett Bogaard, Rico Goldstone and Jalen Elrod placed 19th in the trials with a time of 42.14. The 4x400m relay team of Alex Jackson, Kolton Kempel, Joshua Kingsland and Evers placed 14th in the trials at 3:15.23.
Navy will next send its qualified athletes to the NCAA's East Regional Championship in Jacksonville, Fla. from May 24-26. Athletes must rank in the top 48 in their respective events to receive qualification. The performance deadline is Sunday night and the lists will be revealed later this week.
Navy currently has five athletes ranked in the top 48 of the NCAA East Region: Duncavage is 10th in the discus, Snelgrove is 24th in the javelin, Ken Bunnell is 24th in the 3,000m steeplechase, Rome is 32nd in the 5,000m run and Vetere is 45th in the pole vault.
IC4A All-East Performers (Top 8)Cody Rome 2nd 1,500mMiles Snelgrove 5th JavelinChris Ricks 6th Hammer ThrowMark Vetere 7th Pole Vault
