Beatty Claims Second Consecutive Patriot League Championship Individual Crown

Sunday, October 31

Bethlehem, PA

12:00 PM

Army West Point

Patriot League Championships

Beatty Claims Second Consecutive Patriot League Championship Individual Crown

October 31, 2021 | Men's Cross Country

MEET 6
MEET	Patriot League Championship
RESULTS	Second
RACE DISTANCE	8K
TEAMS	Army, American, Boston, Bucknell, Colgate, Holy Cross, Lafayette, Lehigh, Loyola Maryland, Navy
LOCATION	Goodman Campus Course

BETHLEHEM, Pa. – Senior Marshall Beatty added his name to the record book once again when he won his second straight Patriot League Men's Cross Country Championship on Sunday. Beatty won the 8K race in 24:42.2 as he becomes the 10^th runner to win consecutive titles in Patriot League history. Beatty joins Army West Point alums Dan Browne (1995-96), Scott Goff (1997-98) and Will Wyche (2000-01), American's Brendan Fennell (2006-07) and Pat MacAdie (2003-04), and Navy's Andrew Hanko (2009-10) and Lucas Stalnaker (2015-16) as two-time winners.

Beatty sat in 19^th place at the 1-mile mark before soaring ahead of the pack. He was in first place at the 3.9-mile mark with a six-second lead over Navy's Gregory Matthias; Beatty finished the race 24.2 seconds ahead of Matthias.

The four-time defending champion Black Knights finished in second place behind Navy as their bid to win a fifth straight title fell just a little short. Army's four straight league titles were tied for the second-longest streak in league history.

The Black Knights finished with a score of 55 points with an average time of 25:21.1 Thomas Vo was second on the team with a time of 25:28.0 for an 11^th place finish. Matthew Porter finished right behind Vo with a time of 25:28.0 Erick Lara (15^th) and Caden Foster (16) completed the scoring for Army.

COACH'S CORNER
"We knew coming into the race today that it was an Army-Navy battle for the title. We had won four-in-a-row coming into this weekend and we felt like if we executed well we could win the meet. The conditions were definitely a factor in the race today. The rain from the past week had softened the course and there was standing water, mud and very slippery conditions out there. We knew that the pace would be far more conservative, and we hoped to take advantage of that today. We got out well in the race and halfway through I thought we had a shot to win. With one mile to go we were within striking distance (8 points) if we closed out the race but we were unable to do it. We really executed pretty well up to the 4-mile mark. We knew that it would come down to that last mile, so the guys did a nice job of giving themselves a shot at the win. In the end we were not good enough today.

I thought by and large we had some good individual performances today but the thing that has been missing for us most of this year has been consistency and that hurt us again today. We made some mistakes in how we distributed our effort and we struggled to make up places over the critical last mile of the race and in the end that was our downfall. We did have some young guys show some nice race discipline. Thomas Vo has demonstrated that he is a top level runner in this conference on a number of occasions and today he moved up nicely throughout the race and just missed a top 10 performance. He possesses a great skill set as a cross country runner and will continue to be one of our key performers. Matthew Porter has been one of our most consistent guys all year and today was more of the same. He is a great example of the value of consistency in training and how that can equate to performance. Erick Lara has also shown flashes of competitiveness all season and did a nice job today of getting himself into a great position to impact the outcome. He will continue to help us get better. Caden Foster was running his first and last Patriot League race today and has really demonstrated some grit and determination in making himself relevant on the grass. He is accustomed to success on the track and this fall has been a coming out for him in cross country. I am proud of the way he has taken on the responsibility to contribute this fall and am confident that he can be even better for us this year on the track. Our leader all year and again today was Marshall Beatty. Last night at the team meeting he declared to his teammates, "I am going to win the race tomorrow". There was a long pause at that point and silence in the room after he said it and then there was recognition that we were starting off the race with one point. There really was no doubt in anyone's mind that he was committed to it and that he would be committed every step of the race. That sent a very strong confident message to the team. Today he laid back in the first mile but then took command at the 2 mile and continued to build separation from the field as the race wore on. With a mile to go he had gapped the nearest competitor and noticeably he kept pouring on the pain. He was relentless.

It was the finest cross country moment of his storied career. His win was the first back-to-back individual title for an Army runner since 2000-2001 when Will Wyche took home back to back titles. Marshall joins Dan Browne, Scott Goff, Will Wyche as the only Army men to ever repeat as Patriot League Cross Country individual champions.

The wins today by Georgia Jones and Marshall Beatty mark the first time since 1996 that Army runners have swept the individual Patriot League cross country championship titles." - Mike Smith

CADET'S CORNER

Comments from Marshall Beatty pic.twitter.com/goAJzqfwkb
— Army Track & XC (@ArmyWP_TrackXC) October 31, 2021

TOP FINISHERS

Marshall Beatty – 24:42.2
(11) Thomas Vo – 25:28.0
(12) Matthew Porter – 25:28.3
(15) Erick Lara – 25:33.3
(16) Caden Foster – 25:33.6

2021 Patriot League Cross Country Major Awards
Men's Outstanding Performer of the Meet: Marshall Beatty, Army West Point, Sr.
Men's Rookie of the Meet: Murphy Smith, Navy, Fr.
Men's Coach of the Year: Aaron Lanzel, Navy

2021 Patriot League Cross Country Men's Championship Team Results
1. Navy, 20
2. Army West Point, 55
3. Boston University, 80
4. Lafayette, 134
5. Lehigh, 139
6. Bucknell, 140
7. Loyola Maryland, 183
8. American, 236
9. Holy Cross, 270
10. Colgate, 315

First-Team All-Patriot League (Men): 1. Marshall Beatty, Army West Point, Sr.; 2. Miguel Mathias, Navy, Sr.; 3. Brett Brady, Navy, Jr.; 4. Samuel Keeny, Navy, So.; 5. Garrison Clark, Navy, Jr.; 6. Ashwin Briggs, Navy, Sr.; 7. John Bowers, Navy, Sr.

Second-Team All-Patriot League (Men): 8. Matthew Mason, Boston University, So.; 9. Robert Oehrlein, Lafayette, Jr.; 10. Kevin Murphy, Boston University, Jr.; 11. Thomas Vo, Army West Point, So.; 12. Matthew Porter, Army West Point, Jr.; 13. Marcel Aubry, Boston University, Sr.; 14. David Nelsen, Navy, Sr.

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