WAPPINGERS FALLS, N.Y. - The 2017 Men's Cross Country Star Meet was an 8K battle throughout that entirety of the competition on Saturday.
Racing at the cross country course at Bowdoin Park, Army defeated Navy by two points, 27-29. The two-point margin of victory was the slimmest in a men's Star Meet since 2008 when the Black Knights edged the Mids, 27-28.
In a tight race, that saw the lead pack of ten runners evenly split with five Navy and five Army runners around nearly every corner and up every hill, a final push down the stretch earned the host Black Knights the victory. Army's John Valeri won the individual title at 23:11.30, just 0.80 seconds ahead of Kevin Murray, who clocked in at 23:12.10. Jake Brophy, followed up his Midshipmen teammate in third place with a time of 23:13.30.
Army's Roman Ollar took fourth at 23:19.50, while Ben Petrella scored a fifth-place finish in 23:20.40. Robbie Santoyo rounded out the top six with a clocking of 23:35.90. The three places in a row was the deciding factor for the Black Knights in the win.
A sign of the competitiveness and tight racing, the average time for Army's top-five runners was 23:33.28, while Navy's top-five average was 23:39.82. The top-six overall runners all turned in sub-5:00 average miles.
