It was another record setting weekend for the Navy track and field team. Navy saw two program records go down at the David Hemery Valentine Invite in Boston, Mass., with Emily Boutin setting a new program record in the 5,000m and Alex Rizzo in the one-mile.
At the Darius Dixon Memorial Invitational in Lynchburg, Va., Jia Anderson broke her own 60m hurdles record twice to continue her impressive freshman campaign. Overall, Navy set three program records, 11 top-10 marks and 60 IC4A / ECAC qualifying times during its weekend of competition.
“Liberty allowed us to compete in a lot of different events against a lot of competitors. We asked our athletes to do more events than they have the last few weeks and saw a lot of great responses to that,” said Director of Track and Field / Cross Country Jamie Cook. “We were pretty pleased with what we got out of the meet especially the performance from Jia Anderson in the 60m hurdles, breaking her own school record which as a freshman is amazing. Nathan Kent had a very good weekend in the sprints and Sam Kwatkosky hitting 20m in the weight throw was a standout performance. Up in Boston, Emily Boutin setting a program record in the 5,000m by a significant margin and Alex Rizzo breaking the men’s mile record are huge moments for our program.”
“The camaraderie overall with the group was really good today,” continued Cook. “We had a lot of personal bests and a majority of the team produced seasonal bests and whenever that happens it shows we’re trending in the right direction. As we prepare the next two weeks for conference it’s important that we understand what we can control and try to get as much support behind us from all the people in Annapolis and the Naval Academy because we’re going to need it. It will be a great chance for people to come out and see a team that is very accomplished the last few years.”
David Hemery Valentine Invite Recap
Five Mids made the trip to Boston, Mass., to compete in the 2023 David Hemery Valentine Invite and two recorded new program records. Alex Rizzo became the third Mid to end with an under-four-minute mile, breaking the school record with a time of 3:58.75. His time breaks the previous mark of 3:59.52, which was set by David Nelsen on Feb. 12, 2022.
Emily Boutin broke her second program record on Friday. After breaking the 3,000m record earlier in the season, the junior set a new program best in the 5,000m with a time of 16:19.36. Her time is 21.5 seconds faster than the previous mark held by Justine Whipple since 2006.
Sam Kenny ended with the ninth-best 3,000m time in Navy history at the meet with a time of 8:00.43 and Brett Brady recorded a qualifying time of 8:13.76.
Ellie Abraham did run the 10th fastest mile time in Navy history at 4:52.08 in Boston but Alanna Julius ended with a time of 4:52.04 the next day at the Darius Dixon Memorial Invitational to set what is now the 10th-best mile time in Navy’s record book.
Darius Dixon Memorial Invitational Men’s Recap
Highlighting the men’s team was the 4x400m relay team nearly breaking a school record. The squad of Jonathan Simmons, Mike Quispe, Nathan Kent and Jacques Guillaume set the second-best time in Navy history at 3:11.93 to win the event, finishing just .35 seconds off the all-time best. The squad of Pete deJonge, Tymique Goodman, Conrad Swenson and Ryan Harris also had a solid outing in the 4x400m, placing fourth with an IC4A qualifying time of 3:19.10.
Guillaume, Kent and Simmons also had impressive performances in their individual events. Guillaume took second overall in the 400m with a time of 47.39 seconds, which ranks seventh-best all-time in Navy history. The sophomore also recorded an IC4A qualifying time in the 200m with a time of 21.71 seconds.
Kent finished with qualifying times in both the 200m and 400m. He placed second in the 200m with a time of 21.57 seconds and crossed the finish line in 48.32 seconds in the 400m. Simmons placed third in the 300m with a time of 34.22 seconds and also in the 400m with a qualifying time of 47.74 seconds.
Ian Bartlett and Tyler Casey recorded a pair of qualifying times in 800m and 1,000m. Bartlett ended with a time of 1:53.24 in the 800m and 2:26.16 in the 1,000m, while Casey recorded a time of 1:52.79 in the 800m and 2:28.45 in the 1,000m. Carson Sloat also finished with a qualifying time in the 800m with a time of 1:52.82 and Jack Lange ended with a time of 2:26.74 in the 1,000m.
Five Mids finished with a qualifying time in the one mile at Darius Dixon, led by Jack Mariano, who also set a new personal best in the event with a time of 4:07.39. Murphy Smith led the way in the 5,000m, taking third overall with a qualifying time/collegiate best at 14:32.12.
Baynes Autrey made the finals in the 60m hurdles with a qualifying time of 8.10 seconds and went on to place eighth overall with another qualifying time of 8.14 seconds.
Navy’s throwers combined to produce eight qualifying distances in both the weight throw and shot put. Sam Kwatkosky recorded the seventh-best distance in the weight throw in Navy history at 20.00m (65′ 7.5″) to place third. The Ocala, Fla., native also had a qualifying distance in the shot put at 16.01m (52′ 6.5″).
Joshua Boamah placed third in the shot put with a qualifying distance of 17.63m (57′ 10.25″) and ended with a qualifying distance of 18.57m (60′ 11.25″) in the weight throw. Collin Greene also had qualifying throws in both events with distances of 16.45m (53′ 11.75″) in the shot put and 19.02m (62′ 5″) in the weight throw. David Huizenga and Dane Vernor also recorded qualifying distances in the weight throw with marks of 17.64m (57′ 10.5″) and 17.10m (56′ 1.25″) respectively.
Aidan Featherby recorded the second-best distance in the long jump at the meet with a qualifying distance of 7.22m (23′ 8.25″).
Darius Dixon Memorial Invitational Women’s Recap
Freshman Jia Anderson finished with the fastest times in the 60m hurdles in Navy history in Lynchburg. After breaking the record last week in the Army-Navy Indoor Star Meet, she broke her own school record twice over the weekend. On Friday, she qualified for the finals with a new program record of 8.47 seconds. The Wilmington, Del., native then finished .06 seconds faster in the finals on Saturday, placing fourth overall in 8.41 seconds.
Sabrina Sutter joined Anderson and Julius in setting a top-10 mark on Saturday. She recorded the fourth-best time in 200m in Navy history at 24.45 seconds to place fourth in the event. Sutter was also part of Navy’s 4x400m relay squad with Kylie Bedard, Annie Lemelin and Taylor Woodworth that finished with a qualifying time of 3:50.14.
Navy claimed second place in three of the track events. Helen West took second in the 400m with a qualifying time of 55.93 seconds and took fourth in the 300m with a time of 40.04 seconds. Alex Wercinski took second in the 1,000m with a qualifying time of 2:53.88 and also recorded a qualifying time in the 800m at 2:14.38. Freshman Sophie Compton’s qualifying time of 17:14.96 earned her second place in the 5,000m.
All three Mids ended with qualifying distances in the weight throw. Autumn Nicholas led with way with a distance of 17.95m (58′ 10.75″), while Jordynn Hutchinson recorded a throw of 16.39m (53′ 9.25″) and Dara Hulstein finished with a distance of 16.12m (52′ 10.75″).
Navy returns to Annapolis to complete the indoor regular season next Friday with the Navy Select at 11:00 a.m. at the Wesley A. Brown Field House. The meet will be Navy’s final competition before the Patriot League Indoor Championship on Feb. 25-26.