Navy to Compete at IC4A Championship This Weekend

The Midshipmen have qualified in 18 different events with 30 entries

	John Olsen individually qualified for the IC4A Championship in three events

March 6, 2008

ANNAPOLIS, Md. - The Navy men's track & field team will make the trek up to Boston University this Saturday and Sunday to take part in the IC4A Championship. The Midshipmen totaled 30 qualifying entries in 18 different events this year for the upcoming regional championship.

The Midshipmen will look to carry the momentum they used two weeks ago in winning the Patriot League Championship at Bucknell's Gerhard Field House on Feb. 22-24. It marked the third league championship claimed by Navy over the last-five years and the first since 2005.

Since head coach Stephen Cooksey took over the reigns in 1988-89, Navy has finished among the top-10 schools at the IC4A Championship five times, with the highest placing coming with a fourth-place team tally in 1997. The Mids last cracked the top 10 in 2006, when they finished ninth.

This year, the Midshipmen have many viable scoring options in a wide variety of events that could land the Mids among the top-10 schools once again.

The strongest area for the Mids appears to be in the middle distance and distance events, as they have three or more qualifying runners in three events. Leading the way is Paul Harris (Sr./Fairburn, Ga.), who ranks 19th nationally with a NCAA provisional-qualifying time of 1:49.29 in the 800-meter run. Harris also qualified for the IC4A Championship in the 500-meter run (1:01.80) and served on the championship-qualifying 4x400-meter (3:15.27), 4x800-meter (7:36.58) and distance medley relays (9:52.52).

Distance runners Andrew Hanko (Fr./Montville, N.J.) and John Olsen (Sr./Staten Island, N.Y.) have both qualified in multiple events this weekend. Hanko owns the team's top times in both the mile (4:09.99) and 3,000-meter (8:15.58) events, while Olsen has individually met the IC4A standard in the mile (4:12.15), 3,000-meter (8:19.02) and 5,000-meter (14:40.14) races. Olsen also served on Navy's fastest distance medley relay of the year, alongside Harris, Craig Meekins (Sr./Baldwin, N.Y.) and Will Ricks (Sr./Hopewell, Va.).

Multi-event athlete Ron Belany (Sr./Haiku, Hawai'i) played a crucial role in Navy's triumph at the Patriot League Championship and has qualified in four events this Saturday and Sunday. The Patriot League Field Athlete of the Meet provisionally qualified for the NCAA Championship with a school-record total of 5,311 points in the heptathlon, which ranks 37th in the country. Belany also posted personal bests in the pole vault (4.96 meters) and the long jump (7.26 meters) to build his heptathlon score. He also won the finals of the 60-meter hurdles with a career-best time of 8.12 seconds.

The throwing events are another area of strength for the Midshipmen, as they have two qualifiers in both the shot put and weight throw. Darryl Hunter (Sr./Des Moines, Iowa) won the shot put at the league championship (17.16 meters), while Andre Barber (Sr./Carrollton, Texas) placed third in the event (16.26 meters). Christopher Bordino (Jr./Gastonia, N.C.) topped all league competitors in the weight throw (17.88 meters) and Mark Van Orden (So./Morris Plains, N.J.) landed second with his effort two weeks ago (17.23 meters).

Those who qualify for the NCAA Championship will compete at the Randal Tyson Track Center in Fayetteville, Ark., next Friday and Saturday (March 14-15).