ANNAPOLIS, Md. - The 2021 Navy XC Twilight meet lies ahead this Friday for the men's and women's teams of the Naval Academy. Starting at 5:25 p.m. with the women's 6k race and finishing at 6:40 p.m. with the men's 4.9m race over 50 Midshipmen runners will be competing in their lone home race of 2021. A third race, the 5k open competition is scheduled in-between at 6:10 p.m. All three races will be hosted by the Mids at the USNA Cross Country Course that runs throughout the Naval Academy's golf course.

M&D Timing, LLC. will be providing live results during Friday's action.

The field for the women's 6k race consists of Catholic University, Loyola, Navy, UMBC and VMI, while the men's 4.9m race has seven schools entered with Bowie State, Catholic, Hagerstown CC, Loyola, Navy, UMBC and VMI set to battle it out for supremacy. In total, 63 women have registered for the varsity competition, while 78 men are entered in the nightcap of the three-race slate.

Friday has the potential for 20 Navy women in the sophomore and freshmen classes to run for the first time in a collegiate meet at home as only three sophomores saw action in duel meets at the course last season. On the men's side of the ledger there is the potential for 22 Mids to make their debut competing on the USNA Cross Country Course.

Navy's History at its Annual Invite
The Midshipmen cross country program has had great success in its early season invitational event versus regional competition. Over the last five Navy Invites, the men have gone 5-for-5 in team titles, while the women have gone 3-for-5 with a pair of runner-up finishes in 2016 and 2019. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic there was no invitational in the fall of 2020.
    Recent Results, last five Navy Invites ...
    Women -- 2019: 2nd of 4 teams, 43 points
     2018: 1st of 6 teams, 18 points
     2017: 1st of 8 teams, 29 points 
     2016: 2nd of 7 teams, 48 points
     2015: 1st of 6 teams, 40 points
   
    Men -- 2019: 1st of 4 teams, 16 points
     2018: 1st of 5 teams, 17 points
     2017: 1st of 5 teams, 24 points
     2016: 1st of 6 teams, 15 points
     2015: 1st of 7 teams, 25 points

Last Navy Invite (2019)
    Women's Race
Navy found itself in a tight battle with the East Carolina Pirates for the right to call themselves champions on Sept. 14, 2019. With Pirates and Mids occupying all ten of the spots in the top-10, a sweep of the first four positions by the visitors from Greenville, N.C. gave ECU the title. Then-freshman Elizabeth Sullivan continued her strong rookie season as she led the Mids with a fifth-place individual result of 22:59.10.
 
Working on their pack racing, a quartet of Midshipmen finished in close proximity starting with Anna Kovacs in eighth with a 23:20.01 effort. Emily Craig was just 0.85 seconds behind Kovacs at 23:20.86. Maddie Warrender and Claire Ostrowski rounded out this initial pack of Navy runners in 10th and 11th place with times of 23:25.89 and 23:27.76, respectively.

    Men's Race
The Mids dominated their opposition at the 2019 Navy Invitational as Navy runners crossed the finish line in quick succession to earn the first, second, third and fourth overall positions. Jake Brophy led the way on Sept. 14 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 came in second place with a 24:48.25 effort. Julian Perez and Ashwin Briggs 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 was the sixth overall finisher with a 25:44.69 result. 

Last Time Out: Salisbury Fall Classic, Saturday, Sept. 4
    Women's Race
The Navy women's cross country team began its 2021 campaign with strong results across the board at the Salisbury Fall Classic as the Mids took home both the team title and individual title courtesy of Emily Ettrich's 10-second victory in the 6k race. Competing as one of six teams, the Mids edged the Pirates of Seton Hall for the team title by 13 points, 25-38.

Crossing the finish line in 50th place in her first collegiate race at the 2019 version of the Salisbury Fall Classic, Ettrich improved her performance by 49 spots this Saturday as she cruised to a 10.21-second victory with a time of 22:29.56. Her teammate sophomore Caroline Harding was the next runner to cross the finish line as she came in second with a time of 22:39.77.

    Men's Race
Navy got its 2021 season underway last 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 posted Navy's best individual result as he finished third overall of 81 runners in the field.

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 and Christian Landis came in back-to-back in fifth and sixth place with respective times of 25:38.09 and 25:40.15.