Navy Travels to Spiked Shoe Invitational this Weekend

Mids third visit to Penn State's Blue Course since 2004

	Navy senior Emily Castro

Sept. 22, 2006

ANNAPOLIS, Md. - After hosting its first home meet of the year last week, the Navy women's cross country team heads back on the road to compete at the Harry Groves Spiked Shoe Invitational in University Park, Pa., on Saturday at 10 a.m.

This year's invitational features a field comprised of nearly 50 teams, with some of the elite regional teams among the group.

"Our focus is on the top-10 Division I teams and stacking ourselves up with them," stated Navy head coach Karen Boyle. "With schools such as UConn, Maryland, West Virginia and Syracuse competing, we are looking to make a splash within that group."

The Midshipmen are making their fifth visit to Penn State's Blue Course in the last-10 years. Navy made three of those visits while competing in the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional Championship in 1997, 2000 and 2004. The Mids competed in the 2004 Spiked Shoe Invitational, placing third among the pack of 17 schools.

Navy is making the trip to University Park, Pa., after placing second out of nine teams in the Salty Seadog Invitational. Richmond won the meet with a team score of 24 points, followed by Navy's 53 points and Loyola's 103 points.

Senior Emily Castro (Centennial, Colo.) led all Navy runners last weekend with her fifth-place time of 23:23.99. Two weeks prior in Navy's season opener at the Harry Lang Invitational, Castro landed third overall with a time of 23:11. The senior has finished among the five-fastest runners in 10 of 22 meets during her career. The product of Centennial, Colo., also has enjoyed much success on the Penn State Blue Course, as she has registered navy's best time in the Spiked Shoe Invitational and NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional Championship in 2004.

Senior Justine Whipple (Duxbury, Mass.) is also expected to make a significant scoring contribution. Whipple rested last weekend following her first-place performance at the Harry Lang Invitational on Sept. 1. The senior posted a time of 22:57 during that meet, the fastest time in the race's history and fifth-best clocking in course history. The product of Duxbury, Mass., has registered Navy's top time in each of the last-seven races she has competed in.

"Both Emily and Justine have been consistent for us over the last couple of years," Boyle commented. "They are both very beneficial to have in a big race. We hope they can continue to lead the group and run against some strong competition this weekend."

Navy will travel again on the following weekend, Sept. 30, to the Stanford Invitational in Palo Alto, Calif. The race is scheduled to begin at 6:25 p.m. EST (3:25 p.m. PST).