HAMILTON, N.Y. – The Navy men's cross country team continued cultivating its depth in early-season action as the team received strong performances from its junior and sophomore classes at the Harry Lang Invitational on Saturday. Racing on a 6.4k course on the campus of Colgate University, the Mids saw four runners place in the top-10 to help the program finish second overall in a field of seven teams.
"There aren't any trick plays in cross country, just consistent preparation and constant pressure to catch hold of good performances," remarked head coach
Aaron Lanzel. "Our sophomores got a chance to check their legs from the summer and I'm pleased with the results from today."
After freshmen were the story of last Saturday's season opening meet, the Salisbury Fall Classic, Navy's sophomores carried the majority of the weight in Central New York on Saturday as six of the Mids' top-seven finishers were sophomores. Junior
Ben Cracraft (Northville, Mich.) was the one outlier in this grouping as he fronted Navy's effort with a sixth-place finish in a time of 20:07.3.
Cracraft was the first of four straight Mids to cross the finish line in Hamilton with
Luke Murphy (So., Tulsa, Okla.) coming in 3.6 seconds behind his teammate in seventh place with a 20:10.9 time.
David Nelsen (So., Chandler, Ariz.) and
Grant Van Valkenburg (So., Duvall, Wash.) recorded the eighth- and ninth-best times as Nelsen clocked in at 20:26.8, while Van Valkenburg was 2.3 second back at 20:29.1.
The final scorer for Navy on Saturday was
Hunter Petrik (So., Sparrows Point, Md.) finishing 14th at 20:42.8.
Sean Casey (So., Vienna, Va.) in 23rd at 20:59.1 and
Clayton Turner (So., Bartlett, Tenn.) in 31st at 21:11.0 were the Mids' sixth and seventh finishers.
Four Navy runners in the top-10 tied Syracuse, the event's team winner. In a close scoreboard in the team competition, the Orange came in first with 31 points, while the Mids were second with 44. Boston U. rounded out the top-three with a team total of 68. The rest of the field consisted of Bucknell in fourth (85 pts), Binghamton in fifth (106), Lehigh in sixth (190) and Colgate in seventh (195).
Navy will be back in action next Saturday morning at home with the annual Navy Invitational. The varsity men's race at the USNA Cross Country Course is scheduled for 10:15 a.m.
