Black Knights Place Second At Battle In Beantown

Friday, September 20

Boston, MA

3:30 PM

Army West Point

Coast to Coast Battle In Beantown

Black Knights Place Second At Battle In Beantown

September 20, 2019 | Men's Cross Country

BOSTON, Mass. – The Army West Point men's cross country team traveled to Boston College to compete in the Coast to Coast Battle In Beantown, finishing second in the 21-team field on Friday.

It was the first action of the season for many of the Black Knights top competitors, marking the beginning of the team's defense of its back-to-back Patriot League championships. The team finished with 91 points, finishing second behind No. 13 ranked Syracuse who had 64 points.

Senior captain Ben Petrella was the top finisher for Army, placing eighth with a time of 24:34. Sophomore Marshall Beatty, the 2018 Patriot League Rookie of the Year, finished right behind his teammate at 24:35 to place 10th.

The Black Knights also saw two other top-twenty finishes as seniors Robbie Santoyo and Roman Ollar placed 14th and 16th respectively.

COACH'S CORNER: Head Coach Mike Smith
"Our guys were outstanding today. I am going to gush about them a little because I can, and they deserve it. We felt like we could be in the hunt to win this meet and that is the way we raced today. I know that that seems crazy given the caliber of the competition (4 ranked teams) but our guys are fearless and more than that, they are warriors in the true sense of the word and that was on display today.

For us to beat No. 3 Washington is probably as significant a win as we have had in decades. It is a remarkable accomplishment. We came in ranked as the fifth best team in the meet, but we ran as if we were the best team there. Our top four guys went out just behind the lead pack and then started picking off guys one by one. We were in fifth place early in the race and just kept moving up throughout. We were really disciplined and to be honest, we can run much better than we did today. The top four were where we thought they could be, but our fifth was further back than we expected. That is where we need to improve. That fifth guy was a plebe (Garrett Gough) and this was his first 8k race. He stepped up big time. He may have been a little bit shocked early in the race by the hard pace and the congestion of runners, but his steady charge from the mid point to the finish was a game changer for us. I was really happy to see him measure up today.

Ben Petrella, Robbie Santoyo, Roman Ollar and Marshall Beatty; those guys are fearless. There are little things that they can do better, but the collective finish (all in the top 16) of those four guys gave us a shot to win we just came up a little short. We had four guys in before Syracuse's number four, but their fifth was much better than ours and that was the difference. It is a long season and we will be defined in the end by how we perform in November but this was a great start for us. The guys believe they belong as one of the elite teams in the country and today they took a step in that direction."

TOP FINISHERS:
8. Ben Petrella – 24:34
10. Marshall Beatty – 24:35
14. Robbie Santoyo – 24:46
16. Roman Ollar – 24:47
43. Garrett Gough – 25:14

FULL RESULTS: http://www.millenniumrunning.com/results-coast-coast-battle-beantown-men-2019-2-2/31589

UP NEXT: The team heads to Bethlehem, Pa., for the Paul Short Invitational on Oct. 5.