Army West Point Athletics
Army West Point
Coast-to-Coast Battle
Black Knights Finish In Top Third Of The Field At The Battle In Beantown
September 24, 2021 | Men's Cross Country
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MEET 3 |
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RESULTS |
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RACE DISTANCE |
8K |
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TEAMS |
Army, Albany, Arkansas, Boston College, Brown, Buffalo, Columbia, UConn, Dartmouth, Duke, Harvard, Maine, UMass, UMass Lowell, New Hampshire, Northeastern, Providence, Rhode Island, Santa Clara, Syracuse, Yale |
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LOCATION |
Franklin Park |
BOSTON – Marshall Beatty paced the Black Knights at the Coast-to-Coast Battle in Beantown as they placed sixth in the 20-team field. This year's event, one of the nation's top collegiate cross country invitationals, featured 20 teams including No. 6 Arkansas and several programs receiving votes in the USTFCCCA national poll.
Marshall Beatty, who has led Army in the last five meets he has raced in, finished in 18th with a time of 24:41 for his second best time at this event. Mitchell Burr followed with a personal-best time of 25:01 to finish 28th. Erick Lara (25:10), Garrett Gough (25:13), and Matthew Porter (25:16) rounded out the scoring for the Black Knights.
COACH'S CORNER
"Our men came into this meet with a strong competitive mindset. We knew that there were some quality teams in the field and we felt like we could compete near the top of the race so our 6th place finish today was a solid performance, but we can be much better. Arkansas dictated the race after the mile mark and comfortably pulled away. Syracuse, Duke, and Harvard were strong early with numbers of guys up front and we were shadowing those teams and if we do a better job of moving up late in the race, maybe we crack the top 5. As the race developed, we were battling with Yale, Dartmouth, Providence, and Columbia to get into the top 5. We put five in before Providence's fifth, but they had their number 1 runner pretty far up in the front so we couldn't hold them off; however, our pack depth and our top 5 spread of 35 seconds gave us the score we needed to stay ahead of the four other IVY schools in the race. In the end, our depth saved us today as we had some strong races from some young guys that are just starting to emerge as contributors. Erick Lara and Mitchell Burr have shown some grit in practice that is translating into good racing. They both got out into the front of the race early and managed to stay in it through to the end of the race. In the past, both of those guys have gone backward as the race wore on but today they really showed some fitness in maintaining their position. The pace was surprisingly controlled early and we had the majority of our top 10 in the top quarter of the race at the mile mark. We knew we were physically ready for a punishing pace, but the course was pretty soft and the humid conditions slowed things down quite a bit so our aggressive early running put most of our team in a good spot. By the halfway point things started to pick up at the front and we were still in the thick of the team race, but we didn't respond to that particular break at the front and that cost us some places that maybe we pick up if we close better over the last 2K. Marshall was a bit off by his standards so while he was our leader today, there is more in him for sure." - Mike Smith
CADET'S CORNER
"My race wasn't what I wanted today, but my teammates picked me up and carried us. I was really impressed with Erick Lara and Mitchell Burr. What they showed today is that we have a lot of depth, we have a lot of guys that can be in our top 5. I know that I have a solid group of guys that I can count on to be together for the majority of a race and that will be important at the championship meets." - Marshall Beatty
TOP FINISHERS
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(18) Marshall Beatty – 24:41
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(28) Mitchell Burr – 25:01
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(39) Erick Lara – 25:10
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(42) Garrett Gough – 25:13
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(47) Matthew Porter – 25:16
Up Next
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The Black Knights will compete at the Paul Short Invitational hosted by Lehigh on Friday, October 1.
Follow Along
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Players Mentioned
