MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. – The Navy men's cross country team placed four runners – senior Murphy Smith (4th), junior Jackson Nguyen (10th), senior team captain Luke Nester (15th), and junior Justin Mumford (16th) – in the top 20 of the Men's Gold (DI) 8K race at the 38th Roy Griak Invitational hosted by the University of Minnesota at the Les Bolstad Golf Course in Minneapolis, Minn. as the Midshipmen finished second overall as a team.
 
The Mids posted a team score of 71 to finish eight points back of team champion Wyoming who tallied a low score of 63 points. Meet-host Minnesota was third with 105 points, while Colorado State (115) and Ohio State (123) rounded out the top five. Utah Valley (158), Youngstown State (162), South Dakota State (191), Cal (251), and North Dakota State (287) finished out the top 10 in the 17-team event.
 
"Some things to be genuinely happy about today," said head coach Aaron Lanzel. "Murphy didn't feel quite his best today but ran with the best. Luke and Jackson were solid all throughout the race. Justin faced a little adversity and still ran tough – much like he always does. Patrick ran a very solid and mature race today to be our fifth man. That's something we hope not to count on him for in his first year with our current team, but he made it a race to be a top team.
 
"We have several clear opportunities with a handful of the guys that just need a little more time to be their healthy normal. The team is hungry still, especially without a win, and I hope that's the feeling until the placements really count in October and November."
 
For the second straight race, Smith led the team with a top five performance finishing fourth among the 180 runners who completed the race. The senior clocked a time of 25:07.1, and was in the top five throughout the competition, jockeying for position before crossing the line in fourth.
 
Nguyen posted a time of 25:18.2 to finish 10th overall. Similar to Smith, Nguyen started in the top 15 moving into 10th-place at the 5,000m mark and holding strong throughout the finish line.
 
Nester and Mumford finished back-to-back to claim 15th and 16th overall, respectively. Nester posted a time of 25:24.8, while Mumford was a little over a second behind with a time of 25:26.5. Freshman Patrick Gandini rounded out Navy's top five with a time of 25:40.2 to finish in 26th.
 
Junior Matt Newell was sixth among Midshipmen with a time of 25:53.6 to finish 40th overall, while sophomore Logan Flament was 59th with a time of 26:09.5 to close out the Mids' top seven runners.
 
Competing in his first race of the 2024 season, senior Alexander Kirkland posted a time of 26:15.2 in the 8K race to finish just outside of the Navy scorers. Freshman Dane Eike (26:41.3), senior Carson Sloat (26:45.8), and senior Nico Valdivieso (27:00.9) also competed for the Mids.
 
The Midshipmen will have a week off from competition before Navy returns to action on Saturday, Oct. 5 at the Paul Short Run in Bethlehem, Pa.