ANNAPOLIS, Md. – The Navy men's cross country team had a victorious home competition on Saturday morning as the Mids dominated their opposition at the 2019 Navy Invitational. Racing on a 8k course over the rolling hills of the USNA Golf Course, the Mids saw its runners cross the line in quick succession to finish first, second, third and fourth overall. Jake Brophy (Sr., New Hope, Pa.) led the way on Saturday with a winning time of 24:40.0 to lead Navy to the team title.
 
Taking on a field of 41 runners from East Carolina, UMBC and McDaniel, Brophy was the class of the competition as he defended his Navy Invitational title from 2018. His talented senior classmate Kevin Murray (Wilmington, Del.) came in second place with a 24:48.25 effort. Julian Perez (Jr., Beaumont, Texas) and Ashwin Briggs (So., Pickerington, Ohio) completed Navy's sweep of the top-four positions with times of 24:55.07 of 25:04.72, respectively.
 
After ECU's Josh Spare placed fifth, Miguel Mathias (So., Nekoosa, Wisc.) was the sixth overall finisher with a 25:44.69 result. Runners from East Carolina (twice), UMBC and McDaniel closed out the top-10.
 
The sophomore trio of Sean Casey (Vienna, Va.), Brandon Sherrill (Lincolnton, N.C.) and John Bowers (Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla.) made it eight Mids in the top-15 as Casey and Sherrill finished back-to-back in 11th and 12th place with respective times of 26:05.96 and 26:12.68. Bowers was 15th at 26:21.30.
 
On the strength of five top-six finishes, the Mids posted a team score of 16 points. East Carolina was second with 51 points, while UMBC finished third with 71 points. McDaniel rounded out the four-team field with 108 points.
 
"Today was a nice early season quiz for our team," remarked head coach Aaron Lanzel. "The real tests will come later on, but I'm happy to see a year of struggling pay dividends for the team. Jake and Kevin showed they are ready to lead the way as I knew they would be after last spring."
 
As part of the day's racing, a 3.2-mile junior varsity run was held, as well at the USNA Cross Country Course. Garrison Clark (Fr., Severna Park) and Alex Rizzo (Fr., Bronxville, N.Y.) were standouts in the event as both runners came in with sub-16:00 times of 15:50.44 and 15:57.75 to finish first and second, respectively.
 
Navy will continue early season racing next Friday at the Coast-to-Coast Battle in Beantown. The competition in Boston begins at 3:30 p.m.