HAMILTON, N.Y. – The Navy men's cross country team came out looking to secure its first Patriot League Championship since 2016 on Saturday at Colgate University. Racing on the 8k Harry Lang Cross Country Course, the Mids' senior duo of
Jake Brophy (New Hope, Pa.) and
Kevin Murray (Wilmington, Del.) left it all on the course to help spearhead the team's cause. On the strength of Brophy's first-place result and Murray's third-place effort, Navy's five scorers accounted for 40 points. Unfortunately for the Mids that total was just three points shy of Army's championship-winning 37-point score.
The final standings on Saturday saw Army and Navy finish first and second, respectively, over 50 points ahead of third-place Boston University, who tallied 96 points. Lehigh was just one point back of BU in fourth at 97 before Bucknell rounded out the top-five with 105 points. The rest of the field saw Lafayette and Holy Cross go back-to-back with totals of 174 and 197 points. American (221), Colgate (267) and Loyola (298) drew up the rear of the standings.
Brophy was the class of the field from nearly start to finish as he clocked in first at the 2.4k and 7.1k markers, as well as at the finish line with an overall time of 24:45.9. Pulling away at each checkpoint, he surpassed second-place Drew Dorflinger of Bucknell by 18.0 seconds. His fellow senior
Kevin Murray was right behind Dorflinger in third place at 25:07.8. That dynamic duo has now won the Patriot League individual title in back-to-back years as Murray won the title in 2018.
Following Murray came a trio of Army runners in positions four, five and six. Junior
Julian Perez (Beaumont, Texas) crossed the line in eighth place at 25:38.1 to make the team score, Navy 12 – Army 15 through three runners.
Clearly the top-two schools in the field, the Mids and Black Knights had their final two scorers each finish within the next eight positions. Army pulled ahead during this final push as the Black Knights' Garrett Gough and Marshall Beatty finished ninth and 13th, respectively, while the Mids countered with
Luke Murphy (So., Tulsa, Okla.) in 12th at 25:52.2 and
Miguel Mathias (So., Nekoosa, Wisc.) in 16th at 26:09.8.
Three more Navy runners finished in the top-25 in a field of 106 as
David Nelsen (So., Chandler, Ariz.) placed 20th with a time of 26:14.0 and fellow sophomores
Ashwin Briggs (Pickerington, Ohio) and
Grant Van Valkenburg (Duvall, Wash.) went crossed within 1.6 seconds of each other in 24th and 25th place with respective times of 26:21.5 and 26:23.1.
"Jake couldn't have done a better job of separating from the field right at the gun and never giving anyone a chance," exclaimed head coach
Aaron Lanzel. "He was a true champion today. Kevin ran tough having won last year and I'm confident he can be back at 100% in the next couple of weeks to put a cap on his senior season.
"We were second as a team and that is not satisfying. Seeing the whole team develop from last year's position is uplifting. They have roared back to be contenders and attacked with ferocity, but their hunger wasn't quenched today."
For their efforts Brophy and Murray earned All-Patriot League First Team honors. Perez and Murphy were recognized on the All-Patriot League Second Team.
Navy's postseason racing will continue in two weeks when the Mids head to Bethlehem, Pa. and Lehigh University for the 2019 NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional Championship.
