CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The Navy men's cross country team completed competition at the Virginia College & Open Invitational on a rainy Saturday morning at Panorama Farms in Charlottesville, Va., finishing 19th overall among the 23 teams competing in the 8K race. Senior team captain
Sam Keeny was the Midshipmen's top runner, coming in 49th overall to finish among the top 25-percent of all competitors.
"Some satisfying things for the team today, but it's also a brutally honest and revealing sport that provided some valuable experience for our men to pursue another level in the future," head coach
Aaron Lanzel remarked after the meet. "Sam ran a good race, as did Alexander and Murphy. It was a bit conservative and left them wanting more, not a bad place to be in mid-September. We get to go face to face with anyone and everyone all at once in this sport, and we came to this race today to face excellent competition – a host of individual All-Americans and about half of the 32 teams who will run the National Championships. It was a great measuring stick for motivation ahead."
Northern Arizona claimed the men's race with a combined low score of 71, finishing 30 points ahead of BYU who took second with 101 points. North Carolina (157 points), Syracuse (167), and Villanova (169) rounded out the top five. Meet-host Virginia came in seventh place with 214 points.
Keeny clocked a team-best time of 23:59.9 to finish 49th overall among the 217 total competitors.
Murphy Smith followed, crossing the finish line with a time of 24:16.0, while
Alexander Kirkland was third among Midshipmen runners with a time of 24:18.5.
Justin Mumford (24:38.5) and
Luke Nester (24:43.5) rounded out Navy's top five, while
Jackson Nguyen (25:06.6) and
Matt Newell (25:09.4) closed out the Midshipmen's top seven competitors.
Additionally,
Ben Countiss (25:12.4),
Sam Moultrie (25:17.7), and
Carson Sloat (25:28.6) also competed in the men's collegiate 8K.
In the Open 5K,
Max Girardet was the top collegiate finisher, taking second in the event with a time of 15:22.2.
Owen Ahten (15:48.9),
Logan Flament (16:02.4),
Zack Poekert (16:07.1), and
Nick Hamby (16:12.0) all finished in the top 10 of the Open 5K, coming in fifth, sixth, seventh, and ninth, respectively.
The Midshipmen will travel to Bethlehem, Pa. for the Paul Short Invitational on Saturday, Sept. 30. The site of the meet, which is hosted by Lehigh, will be the same course as the 2023 NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional on Friday, Nov. 10.
