March 8, 2008

BOSTON - Navy men's track & field runners Craig Meekins (Sr./Baldwin, N.Y.) and Andrew Hanko (Fr./Montville, N.J.) each qualified for the finals in their respective events in the opening day of the IC4A Championship at Boston University on Saturday.

Only four events were scored during Saturday's action, with Liberty holding the early lead with 20 points, followed by Binghamton's 16 points and Manhattan's 14 points.

Meekins posted the field's second-fastest time in the 800-meter run during the preliminary race on Saturday, as he finished in 1:49.85. The career-best mark ranks as the fourth-fastest time in school history, just 1.39 seconds off the program benchmark set by Paul Harris (Sr./Fairburn, Ga.) at last year's Iowa State Classic. The effort also provisionally qualified him for the NCAA Championship next week in Fayetteville, Ark.

In the mile run, Hanko delivered a time of 4:10.25 to finish ninth during the preliminary round to advance to the finals. Hanko's time was only 0.26-second off his personal-best time of 4:09.99 set at the Penn State National Open in January.

Ron Belany (Sr./Haiku, Hawai'i), the 2008 Patriot League Field Athlete of the Meet, totaled 2,739 points over the first-four events of the heptathlon. His best performances came in the long jump, where he soared 22'9" (6.93 meters) to lead all performers with 797 points, and in the 55-meter dash, where he racked up 807 points with his 6.74-second clocking. Two of Belany's best events, the 55-meter hurdles and pole vault, are on the docket for Sunday.

Distance runner John Olsen (Sr./Staten Island, N.Y.) recorded a career-best time of 8:18.45 in the 3,000-meter run to finish 16th in the finals. Christopher Bordino (Jr./Gastonia, N.C.) placed 14th in the weight throw finals with a distance of 55'8-1/4" (16.93 meters), while teammate Mark Van Orden (So./Morris Plains, N.J.) landed 19th with his 54'4-1/2" (16.60 meters) toss.

The Midshipmen will compete in the second and final day of the IC4A Championship tomorrow.