12/10/2002 - Men's Track and Field
Navy Men’s Indoor Track & Field Selected to Finish in a Tie for Third in the Preseason Patriot League Poll

The 2002-03 Navy men's indoor track & field team, following a vote of the league's head coaches and track & field sports information directors, has recorded 54 points to tie Lafayette for third place in the preseason Patriot League poll.

The Mids are coming off their opening meet of the season, the Navy Invitational, last Friday evening. In the non-scoring meet, four individual indoor records were either tied or broken in the field events. Brenden Pool (Ocala, Fla.), David Hunt (Rochester, N.Y.) and Eric Madonia (Chandler, Ariz.) tied for first place in the high jump with marks of 6'2". Hunt later recorded a career-best indoor leap of 22'3/4" in the long jump. Bubba Durrum (Mt. Pleasant, Texas) won the pole vault with an indoor career-tying clearance of 14'9", while both Nate Michael (Coppell, Texas) and Ralph Lufkin (Basking Ridge, N.J.) set new indoor career-highs with marks of 49'7" and 46'10-3/4", respectively in the shot put.

"The poll reflects the league, as Army is always at the top," said Navy head coach Stephen Cooksey. "We'd be thrilled to finish third this season as we'll have to rely on a lot of younger guys, mainly sophomores and freshmen."

Army was selected to win its 10th-straight league championship, receiving 95 points and 12-of-16 first-place votes. Bucknell with 87 points and three first-place tallies was selected to finish ahead of Navy and Lafayette, with the Mids registering the final first-place vote. Closely behind in fifth place was American, with 51 total points and Colgate and Lehigh picked in sixth and seventh with 47 and 46 points, respectively. Holy Cross rounded out the poll with 14 points.

Following the holiday break, the Mids will return to action Jan. 11, 2003, as they play host to Princeton in a dual meet at 12-Noon at Halsey Field House.

2002-03 Patriot League men's Indoor Track & Field Preseason Poll Place Team Points (first-place votes) 2001 finish 1 Army 95 (12) 1st 2 Bucknell 87 (3) 2nd 3t Navy 54 (1) 6th 3t Lafayette 54 3rd 5 American 51 7th 6 Colgate 47 4th 7 Lehigh 46 5th 8 Holy Cross 14 8th