LEWISBURG, Pa. – Junior
Kevin Murray had a day for the record books on Saturday as the Wilmington, Del. native dominated the field at the 2018 Patriot League Men's Cross Country Championship on the campus of Bucknell University. One year after finishing fifth at the conference meet, Murray was the fastest runner in the field of 112 entrants by 8.5 seconds as he clocked in at 25:27.5. As a team, Navy recorded 95 points to place fourth of 10 programs at the competition.
Murray was strong throughout the 8K race as he checked in first at the 1.85K and 6K markers, with only a fourth-place standing after 3.9K, his only blemish. He was mere 0.3 seconds behind the leader at that second checkpoint. Leading second place Roman Ollar of Army by just 0.1 seconds at the 6K mark, Murray pulled away over the final 2,000 meters of the race as he closed with a 6:24.1 split, 8.4 seconds better than Ollar. Murray's victory at 25:27.5 made him the fourth-ever Midshipmen to win a Patriot League Championship. The previous Mids to finish atop the podium were Aaron Hanko in 2009 and 2010, Steve Schroeder in 2014 and Lucas Stalnaker in 2015 & 2016.
As is the case in every other varsity race for Navy this season,
Jake Brophy (Jr., New Hope, Pa.) and
Michael Karls (Sr., Festus, Mo.) joined Murray in the top-three of the Mids' scoring lineup. Brophy just missed All-Patriot League honors as he was edged for the final spot on the second team by Bucknell's Chad Sussman, who placed 14th at 26:27.9. Brophy's 26:31.6 left him 15th in the standings. Karls, the Mids' team captain, registered the 20th fastest time at 26:45.6.
A pair of plebes provided Navy with its fourth and fifth scorers as
Miguel Mathias (Nekoosa, Wisc.) came in 31st with a time of 27:10.0, while
David Nelsen (Chandler, Ariz.) was a second back in 34th place with a 27:11.0 result.
Two more underclassmen
Ben Cracraft (So., Northville, Mich.) and
Julian Perez (So., Beaumont, Texas) gave Navy seven runners in the top-50 as Cracraft clocked in 41st place with a time of 27:23.0, while Perez was 50th at 27:29.3. Perez edged his teammate
Dawson Podlena (So., Topeka, Kan.) by 0.5 seconds as Podlena was 51st with 27:29.8 time.
"Kevin was a champion today," remarked head coach
Aaron Lanzel. "Unfortunately, he isn't able to enjoy it like he should be able to. Teams with depth in numbers will win on days like today in the muck and mire. Our two freshmen who scored today learned that hard lesson with the rest. We will develop and we will build from a day like today."
In the team standings, Army placed first with 32 points on the strength of five runners in the top-11. Boston University finished second in the standings with 51 points ahead of the host Bucknell Bison team that recorded 85 points. Navy finished 10 points back in fourth place. The remainder of the standings saw Lehigh (118 pts) in fifth, American (150) in sixth, Holy Cross (210) in seventh, Lafayette (226) in eighth, Loyola (289) in ninth and Colgate (290) in tenth.
Navy will now turn its attention to the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional Championship meet on Friday, Nov. 9 on the campus of Penn State.
