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Mids Wrap Up Season at NCAA Regional

Nine Navy competitors took part in the two-day event

	Mark Van Orden finished 11th in the hammer throw

June 1, 2008

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - The Navy men's track & field team concluded its campaign with nine Midshipmen taking part in the NCAA East Region Championship at Florida State's Mike Long Track on Friday and Saturday.

Host Florida State won the regional with 88.5 points, followed by Florida's 68 points, Georgia's 49 points, South Carolina's 42 points and Clemson's 38 points.

The top-five finishers in each event earned an automatic berth to the NCAA Championship in Des Moines, Iowa, on June 11-14.

Craig Meekins (Sr./Baldwin, N.Y.) posted the 12th-fastest time in the 800-meter run prelims on Friday, just missing qualification for the Saturday finals. He completed the race - in the fastest of the four heats - in 1:49.24, marking a career-best time and the seventh-best clocking in school history.

Darryl Hunter (Sr./Des Moines, Iowa) placed among the top 20 in two throwing events. He landed in 15th place in the discus throw with a 162'5" (49.50 meters) toss and finished 17th in the shot put with a distance of 54'10-3/4" (16.73 meters). Teammate Andre Barber (Sr./Carrollton, Texas) also competed in the discus throw, as he came in 20th place with his 142'5" (43.41 meters) performance.

Two Midshipmen saw action in the javelin throw on Friday. Bo Lawson (Sr./Newton, N.J.) uncorked a 203'3" (61.95 meters) throw to place 11th, followed by teammate Devan Clark's (Fr./Lorton, Va.) 29th-place distance of 184'8" (56.28 meters).

Navy had three other competitors finish among the top 20 over the two-day championship. Mark Van Orden (So./Morris Plains, N.J.) delivered an 11th-place toss of 192'1" (58.56 meters) in the hammer throw on Saturday. Dante Marshall (Sr./Hermitage, Pa.) finished 18th in the triple jump with a distance of 49'3" (15.01 meters) and John Olsen (Sr./Staten Island, N.Y.) matched that ranking in the 3,000-meter steeplechase with his 9:21.05 clocking.

Ron Belany (Sr./Haiku, Hawai'i) landed in 27th place with a 22'3/4" (6.72 meters) performance in the long jump on Friday.