PHILADELPHIA, Pa. - The Navy track and field teams concluded competition at the 127th Penn Relays on Saturday at Franklin Field in Philadelphia, Pa. The meet did not have team scoring.
 
Highlighting the three-day event for the Mids was a program record set by the women's distance medley relay team of Ellie Abraham, Molly Mangan, Alex Wercinski and Emily Boutin. The squad placed third in the college women's section with a time of 11:22.72. The time is more than 10 seconds faster than the previous record set by Boutin, Lindsay Lewis, Abraham and Winter Boese at the Penn Relays a year ago (11:32.80).
 
"I think the whole team did a great job managing the situation in some tough weather conditions during our three days here. They competed hard all weekend and represented the Naval Academy in the right way," said Director of Track and Field / Cross Country Jamie Cook. "We had a great weekend from a camaraderie standpoint, everyone supported one another. The men's team coming out to support the women's 4x400m team even after a lot of the events were finished yesterday was cool to see. In a meet like this, you can get lost in the shuffle, but everyone felt supported.
 
"For us to set a program record by over 10 seconds is significant. It shows how hard those four athletes (Ellie Abraham, Emily Boutin, Molly Mangan, Alex Wercinski) and coach (Kim) Lewnes have put in this season. Another big moment was the women's 4x800m team concluding the meet by winning their section pretty handily."
 
Also setting a program top-10 time was the 4x800m relay team of Mia-Claire Kezal, Sophie Compton, McKenna Brophy and Emily Ettrich. The quartet won the college women's race with the second-fastest time in school history at 8:48.17. Their time is also an ECAC qualifying time.  
 
Kylie Bedard, Annie Lemelin, Kayla McGuire and Taylor Woodworth took second place in the preliminaries of the women's college 4x400m relay race with a qualifying time of 3:50.11.
 
Brahmir Vick, Jay Evans, Sethan Hollier and Caden Dailey placed ninth in the preliminaries of the 4x100m relay Championship of America competition with an IC4A qualifying time of 41.39.
 
The men's distance medley relay squad of Carson Sloat, Jacques Guillaume, Ian Bartlett and Alex Rizzo finished in 10th place in the Championship of America race with a time of 9:52.22.
 
Jack Mariano, Luke Nester, Matt Newell and Greyson Gravitt posted a qualifying time of 7:32.47 to place eighth in the 4x800m relay college men's race.
 
Tom Fodor and Justin Mumford were the only Mids to compete in individual track events over the weekend. Fodor finished in 11th place in the 3000m steeplechase championship with a career-best / qualifying time of 9:00.21. Mumford took 44th place in the 5,000m championship with a qualifying time of 14:31.26.
 
Joshua Boamah posted a pair of qualifying marks to lead Navy in the field events. He placed second in the college discus throw with a distance of 52.02m (170' 8") and 12th in the hammer throw championship with a mark of 58.97m (193' 5").
 
Autumn Nicholas and Dara Hulstein both ended with qualifying marks in their respective hammer throw competitions. Nicholas placed 10th in the women's championship with a throw of 57.71m (189' 4"). Her distance was just .08m short of a program top-10 mark. Hulstein took 18th in the college women's section with a distance of 51.68m (169' 7").
 
David Huizenga also recorded a qualifying mark in the discus throw with the sixth-farthest throw of the meet at 49.96m (163' 11").
 
Dane Vernor placed 11th in the men's college hammer throw with a qualifying distance of 56.09m (184' 0").
 
Braden Presser finished second overall in the javelin championship with a qualifying throw of 70.05m (229' 10"). He has posted a distance of at least 70.00m in all five of his competitions this season.
 
Renny Murphy placed sixth in the women's javelin championship with a mark of 45.03m (147' 9").
 
Stephanie Jacobs recorded the additional qualifying mark for the women in the pole vault championship at 3.73m (12' 2.75") to finish in 12th place.
 
Also making an appearance in Philadelphia was Olympian and Navy volunteer coach Devon Allen. He repeated as the winner of the Olympic development men's 110m hurdles elite race by beating Brazil's Rafael Pereira by 0.02 seconds.
 
Up Next
Navy begins postseason action with the 2023 Patriot League Outdoor Championship Friday and Saturday. The championship will be held at Lehigh's Goodman Track and Field Complex in Bethlehem, Pa.
 
"Going into the conference meet you want to make sure your team is prepared and healthy heading into the final week of preparation," added Cook. "I think we'll do a good job going up to Lehigh and compete hard to win more conference championships."