Oct. 11, 2007

ANNAPOLIS, Md. - The Navy men's cross country team (0-0) will aim to bring the N-Star back to Annapolis this Friday when it travels to West Point, N.Y., to take on Army in the annual Star Meet. Race time for Navy's regular season finale at the West Point Golf Course is slated for a 4 p.m. start.

Friday's race features two teams ranked among the top 10 in their respective regions this week. Navy makes the trek north as the sixth-best team in the Mid-Atlantic Region, while Army comes in as the seventh-ranked team in the Northeast Region. Coming into the season, Navy was ranked second in the Patriot League Preseason Poll, while Army shared the third position with Bucknell.

Navy owns a 42-27-1 advantage in the all-time series against Army, including wins in eight of the last-10 Star Meets. Navy head coach Al Cantello has directed the Midshipmen to a 30-8-1 record during his tenure, including a Naval Academy record 29 N-Star victories.

Navy and Army have already competed against one another at the Iona Meet of Champions on Sept. 22 at Van Cortlandt Park in Bronx, N.Y. The Midshipmen placed fourth with a team score of 109 points, while the Black Knights finished seventh with a team tally of 191 points. Navy's top-seven runners on that morning crossed the finish line prior to Army's fourth-fastest competitor.

The Midshipmen will look to count on their senior leadership once again to try and capture the N-Star for a second-straight season. Team captain John Kress (Sr./Colorado Springs, Colo.) won the Army-Navy race one season ago with an impressive 24:33.22 showing on the USNA Cross Country Course. This year, he has turned in three top-10 performances and boasted the team's fastest time at the Roy Griak Invitational two weeks ago.

Running alongside Kress will be classmate John Olsen (Sr./Staten Island, N.Y.), who has produced a strong start to his final collegiate season. Olsen has led the team across the finish line three times this season, placing among the overall top-five runners each time. The native of Staten Island, N.Y., ran the third-fastest Navy time in USNA Cross Country Course history this year, finishing with a blistering 24:01.2 clocking. One season ago against Army, he came in third place with a 24:54.11 showing.

Looking to provide key depth in scoring on Friday for the Mids are Chris Horel (So./Belford, N.J.), Bill Prom (Jr./New Berlin, Wis.), Ricky Griffith (So./Piedmont, Calif.) and Ben Kozy (Sr./Houston, Texas). Each competitor has scored or served as a displacing runner in at least three meets this year.

Following this Friday's action, the Midshipmen and the Black Knights will meet again, along with six other schools at the Patriot League Championship on Saturday, Oct. 27, at Lafayette's Metzgar Fields.