BETHLEHEM, Pa. – With a spot in the 2019 NCAA Championship Meet on the line for the Navy men's cross country program, senior team captain
Jake Brophy (New Hope, Pa.) turned in a near perfect performance to lead the team on Friday at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Championship. Hosted by Lehigh University and run over the 10k Goodman Campus Cross Country Course, Brophy finished second overall to qualify for the NCAA Championship next weekend. As a team, the Mids placed eighth of 25 teams in the field.
With two avenues to qualify for the 2019 NCAA Championship in Terre Haute, Indiana next Saturday, the first as one of the top-two teams and the second as one of the top-four individuals not on an advancing team, Brophy tried to cover both bases as he raced amongst the top-six the entire 10k race. The senior from nearby New Hope, Pa. clocked in first just 0.5 seconds ahead of Princeton's Camren Fischer at the checkpoint of 7.2k with a time of 21:51.4. Over the final 2.8k the positions in the top-10 jostled throughout with first through tenth separated by just 1.9 seconds. Down the stretch, Brophy was able to sprint away with a five-runner pack to the finish line. Fischer came away with the victory at 29:58.8, though Brophy was only 3.1 seconds behind in second at 30:01.9. He edged the Villanova duo of Josh Phillips and Haftu Strintzos by margins of 0.1 and 1.0 seconds, respectively.
"Jake had himself a day," remarked head coach
Aaron Lanzel. "He was challenging the field from the start and was the man everyone was trying to hang with all day. It's very well deserved to send him to the national championship after the year he has had as our senior team captain."
Kevin Murray concluded his standout four-year cross country career with a 29
th-place finish. Murray and Brophy were running one-two early as they checked in at the 1.5-mile marker with times of 6:40.9 and 6:41.0, respectively. Over the next 20-plus minutes of the race, Murray got shuffled back in the standings and had to settle for the 29th-best time of 30:59.6. The senior finished 0.9 seconds behind Temple's Anton Harrsen, who placed 28th overall.
The pairing of
Luke Murphy (So., Tulsa, Okla.) and
Julian Perez (Jr., Beaumont, Texas) finished nearly back-to-back in the 56th and 58th position with respective times of 31:51.8 and 31:57.3.
The final scorer for Navy on Friday was sophomore
Ashwin Briggs (Pickerington, Ohio), who crossed the finish line in 79th place and a 32:20.1 time.
Briggs' sophomore classmate
Miguel Mathias (Nekoosa, Wisc.) was four spots back in 83rd with a time of 32:22.3 to give Navy six runners in the top-85.
In the team standings, Villanova and Georgetown will advance to next weekend's NCAA Championship as the Wildcats finished with 37 points, 30 ahead of the second-place Hoyas (67). Princeton and Temple finished on the outside looking in with team totals of 82 and 100 points to rank third and fourth, respectively. Navy's top-five runners helped the squad finish with 224 points, 18 behind seventh-place Pittsburgh. Amongst the six Patriot League schools in the field of 25, Navy was the highest finisher. Bucknell tallied 273 points to place tenth overall, while the host Lehigh University Mountain Hawks were 12th with 405 points.
"As a team, we are a bit downcast seeing the season come to an end," said Lanzel. "The guys know there was a bit more to be had. The underclassmen burned very hot for the entire fall to achieve tremendous gains from a year ago, but they didn't catch fire today at the end of a full campaign. They'll be seasoned and hardened for that extra bit of racing in their futures."
Brophy will race one more time in this storied career as a member of the field at the 2019 NCAA Championship. The action on Saturday, Nov. 23 will take place at the LaVern Gibson Cross Country Course in Terre Haute, Indiana. The men's 10k race is set for a 12:15 p.m. start. Brophy will be a three-time NCAA competitor as he ran with the Navy team at both the 2016 and 2017 NCAA Championships.
