Navy Men's Track and Field Star Makes History at Wesley Brown Invitational

This weekend's Wesley Brown Invitational was a historic one for the Navy Midshipmen.
Nov 28, 2020; Annapolis, Maryland, USA; A general view of the Navy Midshipmen logo on a water tower near the stadium is seen before the game between the Navy Midshipmen and the Memphis Tigers at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium.
Nov 28, 2020; Annapolis, Maryland, USA; A general view of the Navy Midshipmen logo on a water tower near the stadium is seen before the game between the Navy Midshipmen and the Memphis Tigers at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium. / Scott Taetsch-Imagn Images

The Navy Midshipmen men’s and women’s track and field teams took part in the Wesley Brown Invitational over the weekend which also featured competitors from the Lafayette Leopards, Lehigh Mountain Hawks and UNAT-Naval Academy Prep.

A majority of the participants were from Navy, which meant there was no team scoring at the event.

However, there were a lot of impressive individual performances with some personal bests recorded throughout the two days of competition.

Simon Alexander recorded a personal best of 49.97 in the 400m, giving him his first collegiate event victory. Jaques Guillaume won the 500m and ran a career-best time of 1:03.42.

In the 1,000m, it was Alex Wercinski winning the event with a time of 2:52.33, setting a new personal best time in the process.

The 3,000m event was swept by the Midshipmen, headlined by May McConkey taking first place with a career-best time of 10:07.05.

Keyshawn Dolford had an impressive showing on the field, recording a career-high 16.40m (53’ 9.75”) weight throw mark.

In the long jump, Samantha Bollinger recorded a mark of 5.67m (18’7.25”) to win the event for the first time this season and set a new personal best mark.

Sarah Pirico, who was victorious in the women’s pentathlon with 3,335 points, put up her best marks in the shot put with 10.62m (34’ 10.25”) and long jump with 5.48m (17’ 11.75”).

Alas, it was senior men’s track star Murphy Smith who had the most impressive showing over the weekend.

He completed the 3,000m in 7:55.05, which was not only a personal best, but broke a 14-year record at Navy which was held by Cody Rome with a time of 7:55.12 in 2011.

The Wesley A. Brown Field House facility record of 7:58.61, which was set by Stephen Schroeder in 2015, was also broken.

"The highlight of the meet for us this week was Murphy Smith setting a school record in the 3,000m. It was a well position race and a tough performance to hammer out the last 1,000 meters. Seeing the work he and coach [Aaron] Lanzel put in has been great," remarked director of track and field Jamie Cook, via the official website. "The team been slowly improving and we got a chance to see a lot of the newcomers and I think they're doing very well. The effort was better there was a ton of personal records set today that was really good to see."


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