Competitive running is unique in comparison to most other collegiate sports in that athletes compete year round, with cross country in the fall, indoor track in the winter and outdoor track in the spring. Often at some point throughout their running career athletes will redshirt one season within a year due to injuries or team depth, leaving them with eligibility for partial seasons as in their fourth or fifth seasons.

For senior Dan Nunn, that was exactly the case as he entered this year with eligibility for only the indoor and outdoor seasons. Therefore, Nunn entered this past weekend’s Wesley A. Brown Invitational at Navy having not raced since last spring, nearly seven months ago.

Yet Nunn, a NCAA qualifier in the 10,000m last year, showed that he hadn’t skipped a beat as he convincingly won the 3000m in 8:14.02, a record time for the new Wesley Brown Field House at Navy.

While the race developed slowly, Nunn took the initiative with about 1200m to go and won handily, marking a promising start in his attempt getting back in racing shape. Senior teammate Mike Krisch looked strong as well until he tightened up in the last 400m and ended up finishing fourth.

“I was really just working on getting back in the racing rhythm, get some of the rust out of the old gears,” said Nunn, “It was definitely a good way to start, it certainly bodes well for things to come, and I’m really excited to start it off with a win.”

Nunn looks to add his name to the list of recent Hoyas – including Rod Koborsi (MSB ’05) – who have been successful with limited eligibility in their fifth years.

“You hope that they have enough maturity that they can keep long-term goals and can keep focused, I think he’s done a pretty good job of that, and I was pleased with how he looked on Saturday so hopefully he’ll get in a situation that he can post a fast time here in the next few weeks,” said Head Coach Pat Henner.

In other events over the weekend, freshman hurdler Kamryn Austin looked good in both the 200m and the 60m, hinting that he might not be that far off from improvement in the hurdles.

In the mile, junior Sandy Roberts, working on racing strategy, hung with the pack for the first 1200m, then took off the final 400m to win easily in 4:10.74 – also a new facility record.

“The big goal for this race was not time but to work on a big finishing kick … The time was kind of slow but the tactics were exactly what we were looking for,” Roberts said.

In the 800m, freshman Theon O’Connor and junior Danny Harris got stuck in a bad position in a relatively slow 800m and ended up finishing fourth and sixth, respectively.

However, both O’Connor and Harris would bounce back in the 4x400m relay, where, with sophomore Toby Ulm, they overcame a disappointing opening leg by sophomore Sean Suber to take second in 3:18.39.

Finally, the distance medley relay team of senior Alex Mason, freshman Austin Perron, junior Kelvin Hill and senior Justin Scheid looked especially good, with Mason and Scheid running strong opening and anchor legs, respectively. The Hoyas controlled the race from early on after Mason broke away from the field with a 56-second split on his last 400m and never looked back, winning in a facility record 9:57.47.

The Hoyas return to action next weekend, racing at Penn State.

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