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Jan. 23, 2008

ANNAPOLIS, Md. - The Navy men's track & field will compete away from Halsey Field House for the first time in three weeks this Friday and Saturday when it travels to the Ashenfelter Multi-Sport Facility in University Park, Pa., for the Penn State National Open.

The action will begin on Friday with the pole vault and long jump at 5:45 p.m. and wrap up that night at 9:50 p.m. with the finals of the 60-meter hurdles. Navy will come back the following morning to begin its day in the high jump at 11:00 a.m. The Midshipmen are one of more than 40 teams at one of the largest regular season indoor meets in the region, with preseason nationally ranked Tennessee (No. 3) and Virginia Tech (No. 25) among the field of competing schools.

Navy upped its record to 6-1 on the year last Saturday when it defeated Mount St. Mary's, UNC-Wilmington and William & Mary in Halsey Field House. Despite several competitors missing action due to sickness that struck much of the team, the Midshipmen won 10 of the 17 scored events and produced five IC4A marks to total 207 points on the day.

Coming into this weekend's action, Navy has racked up 15 IC4A Championship entries in a total of 11 different events.

For the second week in a row and eighth time in his career, Paul Harris (Sr./Fairburn, Ga.) was named the Patriot League Track Athlete of the Week. Last Saturday, he won the 500-meter run with a blistering time of 1:01.80, the fifth-fastest time in program history and the second-best Navy showing in the 52-year history of Halsey Field House. This weekend on the 200-meter banked track, Harris will make his second appearance in the 800-meter run during the invitational race. In his first race at that distance two weeks ago, he posted a NCAA provisional qualifying time of 1:51.05. That mark currently stands as the second-fastest time in the nation, only behind Alex McClary's 1:49.28 clocking on a banked track with Arkansas on Jan. 11.

A pair of throwers has guided Navy this season in the field events, as both Darryl Hunter (Sr./Des Moines, Iowa) and Christopher Bordino (Jr./Gastonia, N.C.) have produced IC4A marks in three-consecutive weeks. Hunter has won the shot put in each of his three meets this year, besting his previous week's mark each time. Last Saturday, he uncorked an indoor career-best toss of 55'11" (17.04 meters). Bordino has come away victorious in the weight throw each of Navy's last-two meets. One week ago, he delivered a career-best mark of 56'10" (17.32 meters).

Andrew Hanko (Fr./Montville, N.J.) won the 3,000-meter run with an IC4A-qualifying time of 8:21.06 last week and will be one of four Midshipmen competing in the mile run this Saturday. Ron Belany (Sr./Haiku, Hawai'i) and Matthew Hanley (So./Rapid City, S.D.) both own IC4A times in the 55-meter hurdles and will take part in the 60-meter hurdles event this weekend. Belany, also a multi-event competitor, accumulated 5,218 points in the heptathlon last week to earn a spot at the IC4A Championship in a second event.

Following this weekend's action, Navy will host its indoor home season finale against Army in the annual Star Meet on Saturday, Feb. 2. The dual meet will be Navy's last in Halsey Field House, as the Midshipmen will be moving into the 140,000-square-foot, $45 million Wesley Brown Field House in 2008-09. Navy's new home indoor facility will feature a hydraulic banked 200-meter track, a 60-meter straightaway in the center, dual pole vault/jumping runways, dual throwing areas and a scenic view of the Severn River.