Army West Point Athletics
Saturday, October 14
Wappingers Falls, NY
11 AM
Army West Point
27
vs
29
Navy
Men's Cross Country Captures Star Meet
October 14, 2017 | Men's Cross Country
WAPPINGERS FALLS, N.Y. - The Black Knights placed four runners in the top six to take home the Star in the annual meet with Navy on Saturday at Bowdoin Park.
The Black Knights came away with a 27-29 victory.
STRAIGHT FROM THE SOURCE - Head Coach Mike Smith
"What we saw out there today was a race for the ages. I say that in part because winning cross country meets against Navy has not happened very often for Army but also because of the dramatic way that it played out in the end. I knew we had a good chance to win it if we hung in there long enough and maintained our composure. There were multiple lead changes in the last mile and the outcome was never really certain either way. We had it won at four miles with Robbie (Santoyo) in the lead and Ben (Petrella), John (Valeri) and Roman (Ollar), right on his heels then two Navy runners caught and passed all of our guys with 400 to go and it looked like we would lose. The two Navy runners came into the final straight still in front but John put on a big surge to catch and passed both runners in the last 100 to seal the win for us. I am proud of our guys for their effort today. They had a job to do and they did it.
"Today we saw the kind of competition that has always made cross country one of my favorite sports. It was close all the way to the line and two evenly matched teams waged a dramatic race that came down to the final straight to determine the winner. Going into the meet, I felt like the race would be very close and I think I told our staff that with one mile to go that the outcome would be unknown. And that's how it played out. Either team could have won it today but we were just a little better than them."
HIGHLIGHTS AND NOTES
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The Black Knights came away with a 27-29 victory.
STRAIGHT FROM THE SOURCE - Head Coach Mike Smith
"What we saw out there today was a race for the ages. I say that in part because winning cross country meets against Navy has not happened very often for Army but also because of the dramatic way that it played out in the end. I knew we had a good chance to win it if we hung in there long enough and maintained our composure. There were multiple lead changes in the last mile and the outcome was never really certain either way. We had it won at four miles with Robbie (Santoyo) in the lead and Ben (Petrella), John (Valeri) and Roman (Ollar), right on his heels then two Navy runners caught and passed all of our guys with 400 to go and it looked like we would lose. The two Navy runners came into the final straight still in front but John put on a big surge to catch and passed both runners in the last 100 to seal the win for us. I am proud of our guys for their effort today. They had a job to do and they did it.
"Today we saw the kind of competition that has always made cross country one of my favorite sports. It was close all the way to the line and two evenly matched teams waged a dramatic race that came down to the final straight to determine the winner. Going into the meet, I felt like the race would be very close and I think I told our staff that with one mile to go that the outcome would be unknown. And that's how it played out. Either team could have won it today but we were just a little better than them."
HIGHLIGHTS AND NOTES
- Going into the meet, Army had only won the star meet 10 times since 1966 and only four of those wins had come at home.
- Valeri's individual win was the first for an Army runner since 2013.
- Valeri earned the top spot with a time of 23:11.30 and averaged just under five minutes per mile.
- Ollar took fourth at 23:19.50, while Petrella scored a fifth-place finish in 23:20.40.
- Santoyo rounded out the top six with a clocking of 23:35.90.
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