SALISBURY, Md. – The Navy men's cross country team got its 2021 season underway on Saturday with a first place result at the Salisbury Fall Classic. Entering 15 freshmen in the race, the Mids tallied 32 team points on the strength of five of their runners finishing in the top-10. In his first collegiate competition, Murphy Smith (Fr., Charlotte, N.C.) posted Navy's best individual result as he finished third overall of 81 runners in the field.
 
In the six-team event, Navy and Rowan finished first and second in the standings with eight points separating the two squads, 32-40. The host Salisbury Sea Gulls placed third overall with 76 team points. Seton Hall and Shenandoah were next in the standings with scores of 92 and 155, respectively. Gallaudet finished sixth with 190 points.

"The youth of our team looks strong to start 2021," remarked head coach Aaron Lanzel. "Murphy Smith is eager to get into the college ranks and it was great to see him aggressive today over those five miles. It's normally a motley mixture of results this time of year, but I am much more encouraged today than the norm. Several runners performed above expectations; Cabral, O'Dea and Nester performed very well in their first collegiate race. Landis also had a solid effort to finish with a nice block of Navy runners."
 
Racing on an 8k course at Winter Place Park, Smith paced the Mids as he completed his first race with a time of 25:15.85 to place third, over 15 seconds ahead of Salisbury's Matt Grossi, who finished in fourth place at 25:31.31. A pair of Navy competitors, Andrew Cabral (Fr., Seekonk, Mass.) and Christian Landis (Fr., Matthews, N.C.) came in back-to-back in fifth and sixth place with respective times of 25:38.09 and 25:40.15.
 
Navy and Rowan runners jockeyed for the next four positions as Rowan's Kevin Lauer came in seventh, just over two seconds ahead of Navy's Ryan O'Dea (Fr., Louisville, Ky.), who clocked in at 25:49.97. Rowan's Brandon Diaz and Navy's Luke Nester (Fr., Powell, Ohio) battled their way down to the finish line with Diaz coming in at 25:56.82 versus 25:59.16 for Nester.
 
Nathan Faust (Fr., East Lansing, Mich.) and Alexander Kirkland (Fr., Bel Air, Md.) were the next two Midshipmen to complete the 8k contest as they finished consecutively in 15th and 16th place with times of 26:06.26 and 26:08.82, respectively.
 
Navy will be back in competition next Friday afternoon when the program hosts its annual Navy Classic. The men's race as part of the twilight event is set for a 6:40 p.m. start at the Navy XC Course at the USNA Golf Course.