Army West Point Athletics
Friday, September 15
New Rochelle, NY
TBA
Army West Point
at
Iona Meet of Champions
Men's Cross Country Wins Meet of Champions
September 15, 2023 | Men's Cross Country
NEW ROCHELLE, N.Y. – The Army West Point men's cross country team won the Meet of Champions hosted by Iona on Friday morning. They won with a score of 42. Second place was St. Joseph's 22 points back with 64.
Thomas Vo led the Black Knights charge placing second with a time of 25:08.5. Erick Lara came in fifth (25:32.5), and Isaac Morris rounded out the top 10 finishers coming in tenth (25:44.1).
The Black Knights average time of 25:39 was 13 seconds faster than any other team in the event.
They now turn their focus to the Paul Short Invitational on Sep. 30 at Lehigh.
COACHES CORNER
Head Coach Mike Smith: "In 1951 Army legend Richard Shea won the Heptagonal cross country meet on the old course here at Van Cortlandt Park. He ran 25:06 to win on that November day and his time from that race is the number 10 all time on the Army list at this course. Today Thomas, in his season opener, ran a comfortable and smart race finishing in 25:08. He led us to the win today and I think it was the first time he had ever been the number one man for our team. We ran a stronger lineup today than we did two weeks ago and I thought the guys performed well. This is the most difficult course that we will run this season and I wanted the guys to get a good hard physical test early in the year to prepare them for the competitive season. We typically do very well when the terrain is a factor in the competition and we saw that today. The heavy rains this summer have eroded and rutted out much of the trails and today the footing was treacherous. Running the back hills is like riding a roller coaster with constant shifts in momentum up and down and sharp turns with sand and gravel at every turn. All that to say that this course is a monster. It forces you to measure your effort early and rewards those who are physically strong enough to handle steep hills early and late. We weren't great today but we were good enough to win convincingly. Thomas Vo put his considerable fitness on the line today and ran very well. He has taken his training to another level and this was a great opening performance for him. We expect a lot of our team captains and leading from the front comes with the job. He did that very well today. I expected our upperclassmen to carry us today and for the most part they did their job. I was pleased with how well two of our plebes ran out there. Max and Adam are both New York kids, so they have run here many times before. They got together mid race and did a nice job of working together throughout. On the whole we competed really well out there today and although there are some things we can improve I thought we brought great effort and execution to the race."
Thomas Vo led the Black Knights charge placing second with a time of 25:08.5. Erick Lara came in fifth (25:32.5), and Isaac Morris rounded out the top 10 finishers coming in tenth (25:44.1).
The Black Knights average time of 25:39 was 13 seconds faster than any other team in the event.
They now turn their focus to the Paul Short Invitational on Sep. 30 at Lehigh.
COACHES CORNER
Head Coach Mike Smith: "In 1951 Army legend Richard Shea won the Heptagonal cross country meet on the old course here at Van Cortlandt Park. He ran 25:06 to win on that November day and his time from that race is the number 10 all time on the Army list at this course. Today Thomas, in his season opener, ran a comfortable and smart race finishing in 25:08. He led us to the win today and I think it was the first time he had ever been the number one man for our team. We ran a stronger lineup today than we did two weeks ago and I thought the guys performed well. This is the most difficult course that we will run this season and I wanted the guys to get a good hard physical test early in the year to prepare them for the competitive season. We typically do very well when the terrain is a factor in the competition and we saw that today. The heavy rains this summer have eroded and rutted out much of the trails and today the footing was treacherous. Running the back hills is like riding a roller coaster with constant shifts in momentum up and down and sharp turns with sand and gravel at every turn. All that to say that this course is a monster. It forces you to measure your effort early and rewards those who are physically strong enough to handle steep hills early and late. We weren't great today but we were good enough to win convincingly. Thomas Vo put his considerable fitness on the line today and ran very well. He has taken his training to another level and this was a great opening performance for him. We expect a lot of our team captains and leading from the front comes with the job. He did that very well today. I expected our upperclassmen to carry us today and for the most part they did their job. I was pleased with how well two of our plebes ran out there. Max and Adam are both New York kids, so they have run here many times before. They got together mid race and did a nice job of working together throughout. On the whole we competed really well out there today and although there are some things we can improve I thought we brought great effort and execution to the race."
Players Mentioned
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