JAMAICA PLAIN, Mass. – The Navy men's cross country team kicked up its level of competition on Friday afternoon with action at the Battle In Beantown event in Boston. Taking on a field of 21 teams, including three that are ranked in the top-30 national poll and 18 that are regionally ranked, the Mids placed sixth overall on the strength of
Jake Brophy's (Sr., New Hope, Pa.) second place individual result.
Amongst the 178 competitors in the 8k race at Franklin Park in the Boston neighborhood of Jamaica Plain, Brophy was in or right around the lead throughout the event. Leading at the 5k mark with a time of 15:21, Brophy was overtaken down the stretch by Harvard's Kieran Tuntivate, who sprinted to the 13-second victory, 23:58 to 24:11.
Kevin Murray (Sr., Wilmington, Del.) backed up Brophy's effort with a 15th-place time of 24:46. He was just one second behind Army's Robbie Santoyo, who was 14th. Ten seconds behind Murray was fellow upperclassman
Julian Perez (Jr., Beaumont, Texas), who completed the 8,000 meters in a 24:56 time, that was good for 27th place.
The final two scorers for Navy on Friday were
Ashwin Briggs (So., Pickerington, Ohio) and
Ben Cracraft (Jr., Northville, Mich.), who finished within seven seconds of each other at 25:22 and 25:29. Briggs placed 55th, while Cracraft was 63rd.
Two more Mids finished in the top-100 as sophomores
Miguel Mathias (Nekoosa, Wisc.) came across the line in 66th place at 25:32, while
Hunter Petrik (Sparrows Point, Md.) clocked in 98th at 26:01.
In the team standings, No. 13 Syracuse earned the event title with 64 team points. Army and Stony Brook finished second and third with respective point totals of 91 and 129. Harvard and No. 3 Washington rounded out the top-five as the Crimson recorded 151 points, while the Huskies had 156. Navy was just four points shy of Washington and nine shy of Harvard as the Mids finished in sixth place with 160 points.
The event also hosted an open 5k race in which Navy entered its freshmen duo of
Alex Rizzo (Bronxville, N.Y.) and
Garrison Clark (Severna Park, Md.). Running at the front of the pack for the majority of the contest, Rizzo was leading at the 3.1k mark before he finished runner-up to Stony Brook's Luke Coulter, 15:36 to 15:40. Clark also notched a top-ten result as he completed the race in a time of 15:54, good for eighth place.
"There are still a few stones left unturned, but confirmation in some great preparation as Jake challenged some national competition today," remarked head coach
Aaron Lanzel. "It was also nice to let our freshmen duel at the front of the open race as well. Alex and Garrison were out to compete today."
Navy will step away from competition for a week before stepping to the starting line in Bethlehem, Pa. on Saturday, Oct. 5 for the 2019 Paul Short Run. The action is slated to started at 9:30 a.m. on the campus of Lehigh University.
