June 12, 2024 • 42 mins
Welcome to Navy Sports Central - The Official Podcast of the Navy Sports Nation!
The conclusion of the 2024 sports season saw the Men's and Women's Outdoor Track & Field teams continue their streak of Patriot League Championships. Meanwhile, the Women's Tennis team came from behind in dramatic fashion to win their first ever title. We'll do a complete run down in our sports update.
In our Deep Dive segment, Maura Kent joins us to give her perspective on the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships. She will talk about what it takes to qualify as well as give us some insight into her son Nathan's experience. He qualified for nationals in the 400 meters, and he was joined by Braden Presser (Javelin), Josh Boamah (Hammer Throw & Shot Put), and Brahmir Vick (110m Hurdles).
We've got all of that for you plus our Question of the Day and Mid Watch segment, so don't go anywhere!
Related Links:
- Navy Outdoor Track & Field's Fantastic Four: Everyone's All Americans!
- Emily Messinese and Alyssa Daley named USA Lacrosse All Americans!
We want your answer to our Question of the Day. Here is the one for this episode:
Braden Presser was just named an All American in Outdoor Track & Field in the javelin for the third straight year. When was the last time someone from the men's track team earned this distinction of qualifying as an All American for three consecutive seasons in his respective event? Was it:
A. 1947
B. 1976
C. 1983
D. 2012
You can answer by sending us a text message using the link at the top of the show notes. I'll also post the question on our group Facebook Page.
Follow Navy Sports Central wherever you get your podcasts:
Check out the Navy Sports Nation group page on Facebook!
Music is provided courtesy of Audio Jungle. Artists featured in order:
- Seven In Music (Intro)
- Alexiaction (Deep Dive)
- Loka Music (Question of the Day Lead In)
- Cinematic Alex (Closeout Music)
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Karl (00:14):
Hi everybody, my name is Karl Darden and I'd like to
welcome and thank all of you forjoining us today on Navy Sports
Central.
I'm your host and this is theofficial podcast of the Navy
Sports Nation, where we take adeeper dive into Navy sports.
This is the official podcast ofthe Navy Sports Nation where we
take a deeper dive into Navysports.
With the conclusion of the NCAATrack and Field Championships,
the Navy Athletics 2024 seasonis now over the Mids, finished
up another terrific year, and wewill recap some of those
(00:34):
accomplishments in our sportsupdate.
In our deep dive segment, weactually have a returning guest
who was nice enough to join uson some very short notice to
give us her perspective on theoutdoor track season and what it
was like to be at the DivisionI Championships in Eugene,
Oregon.
I've got all that, plus ourquestion of the day and
mid-watch segment coming rightup, so stay with us.
All right, so glad.
(01:05):
You could all join us today onNavy Sports Central, whether
this is your first visit or youare a regular listener.
Thanks for taking the time.
Before we get into our sportsupdate, I do have a couple of
things to share with you.
First of all, I absolutely gotclobbered with work-related
stuff last month, which pushedthe podcast to the back burner
for a while, so my apologies forthat.
That's pretty much all finishednow, and even though it's
(01:27):
pretty quiet in the yard duringthe summer when it comes to Navy
sports, I've got some thoughtsfor at least two or three
episodes before things crankback up in a couple of months.
I also want to let you knowabout a new feature I think
you'll really like.
This podcast is hosted by acompany called Buzzsprout, and
they're always looking for waysto help us get and stay
connected to our audience, andlast month they came up with
(01:47):
something I think is pretty cool.
From now on, you'll be able tosend the show a text message
while you're listening.
So here's how it works.
When you go to the show notes,you'll see a link just above
where they begin that reads sendus a text message.
All you have to do is click onit and then type in your message
.
It and then type in yourmessage.
You will see a seven-digitnumber in the text box as well,
and you're going to want toleave that in place, because
(02:08):
that's what links the textmessage to my podcast.
Using this feature will allowyou to answer the question of
the day even before the show isover.
In fact, I'd like to invite youto respond to this week's
question using this link, andI'll be sure to give you a shout
out on the next show as well.
I plan to start working on assoon as I release this one.
Okay, that does it for all theadmin stuff.
Let's go ahead and get into aquick sports update.
(02:28):
I'm basically going to recaphow most of the teams finished
out the spring season, so let'sstart with lacrosse.
The men got to the semifinalsof the Patriot League tournament
.
They beat Loyola in thequarterfinals 12-10, but
couldn't get past Lehigh in thesemis.
The Mountain Hawks came out ontop 12-8 in that one, and then
they wound up beating BostonUniversity to qualify for the
tournament.
Now for the season.
(02:49):
The Mids finished with a 9-7record, and they were also 5-3
in conference play.
The women got all the way tothe Patriot League Championship
game against Loyola, and that'sa team that hasn't lost a
conference game in like fiveyears.
In fact, that was to Navy in2019.
This game was back and forththe whole way.
Neither team led by more thantwo goals.
Emily Messinese got Navy evenat 11 apiece, with just over two
(03:10):
minutes left in regulation, andthen the game went into
overtime.
Less than 30 seconds later itwas all over, with the
Greyhounds scoring following aNavy penalty.
It was a tough way to close outthe season, but this Navy team
has a boatload of talent comingback next year and Loyola looked
beatable on more than oneoccasion this season.
So we'll see if the Mids can'tturn the tables on them in 2025.
(03:31):
In the meantime, they can bepretty proud of their 15-4
record.
They were also 8-1 in leagueplay, which included a Star
Series clinching win over Armyin April.
Moving on to baseball, the Midsfinished up a solid season under
first-year coach Chuck Ristano.
They were 15-10 in PatriotLeague play and got to the
championship game, but weren'table to dethrone Army, which
took the best-of-three series towin the title for the sixth
(03:53):
straight year.
That had to sting more than alittle, because the Mids also
felt short in a three-gameseries against the Black Knights
a month earlier and could notclaim the final star of the
sports season.
But overall, I'd have to say itwas a pretty decent first year
for Coach Ristano and I'm surehe's looking forward to getting
that team to the next level.
The Navy men's rugby teamearned a trip back to the
national championship against StMary's out of California.
(04:14):
This time the Mids could notclimb out of an early hole they
dug for themselves and they felljust short 26-22.
It was a tough loss, for sure,but this team really did beat
expectations in my book,considering how young they are.
So look for the Mids to beright in the thick of things
again next spring.
Both the men's and women'stennis teams made it to the
Patriot League Championshipmatch this year.
(04:35):
The men battled hard againstBoston University and the
Terriers, who were the numberone seed, eventually came out on
top.
The Mids had won the previousfive Patriot League titles.
The second-seeded Navy womenalso took on BU, and here Katie
Lee fought off a couple ofchampionship points in the third
set tiebreaker and finally wonit 8-6 to give the Mids their
first ever Patriot League title.
(04:55):
The team finished 24-7 overalland 4-1 in conference play,
including a big win over Army.
And there is one last thing Iwanted to add.
Obviously, swimming and divingis a winter sport, but the USA
Swimming Olympic Trials are setto start this weekend and the
mids had six swimmers qualify.
They are Matt Murphy, Juan Moraand Michael Phillips in a
200-meter breaststroke, JonahHarm and Patrick Colwell in a
(05:17):
100-meter butterfly and BenIrwin in the 100-meter and
200-meter backstroke.
That's got to be an absolutethrill for those athletes.
Murphy, colwell and Harm justgraduated, so how cool would
that be for them to wrap uptheir Navy careers with a
personal best time at the USOlympic trials.
All right, the last sportsupdate of the season is in the
(05:38):
books, and coming up next wehave our deep dive segment,
where our guest will share someof her perspective while
watching four outstanding Navyathletes compete at the NCAA
Outdoor Track and FieldChampionships.
So please stick around.
(06:09):
You know, one of the things Ienjoy the most about doing this
podcast is having the occasionalopportunity to talk to some of
the parents of Navy athletes,and last summer I had the
pleasure of getting to know MaraKent.
She is the mother of NathanKent, who is not only a wide
receiver on the football team,but he's also a sprinter on the
Navy track and field team.
Mara joined me for an episodelast August and we had a great
conversation that covered arange of topics, including how
she saw her role when it came toraising an elite athlete who is
(06:32):
pretty much training orcompeting for 10 or 11 months
out of the year.
Last month, nathan, who justfinished his sophomore year,
qualified for the NCAA track andfield championships in the 400
meters.
He was joined by Braden Presser, who qualified in the javelin
for the third straight year,vermeer Vick, who punched his
ticket in 110 meter hurdles, andJosh Boma, who qualified in
both the hammer throw and theshot put.
(06:52):
All three of them justgraduated with the class of 2024
.
Anyway, Maura was in Eugene,Oregon, to take it all in and
she joins us here today to shareher experience.
All right, Maura.
Thanks for joining me today onNavy Sports Central, especially
on such short notice.
I know we were in communicationyesterday to see if we can set
this up, so thank you for makingthe time.
Maura (07:10):
Oh, absolutely.
It's always an honor torecognize these athletes and
what they've done.
Thank you for this chance.
Karl (07:16):
Yeah, no problem.
First of all, I wanted to getyour thoughts on how Nathan felt
going into the outdoor season.
I know he came off of indoorslooking really strong.
He was the Patriot Leaguechampion in both the 200 and the
400.
So he had to be feeling prettygood from a confidence
standpoint, right.
Maura (07:32):
Yeah, thank you for your kind words about how he did it
indoors.
Always fun that you actuallytrack the athletes and they're
out there on our fans and familypages.
Thank you for that, but timestream rolls around.
You know Nathan's alreadycompeted for the Naval Academy
in the fall football team.
He's done winter indoor track.
So heading into spring outdoortrack season is a lot but he
(07:53):
loves it.
Why?
It's because the mids on bothteams are incredible.
His coaching staff for bothfootball and track.
They work together to ensure heisn't more out tore up
exhausted by the end of eachseason.
He often is rested every otherweekend during the winter and
spring track seasons.
That allows him to stay freshand excited.
So yes, heading into the springoutdoor track season, he was
(08:16):
ready to see how far he and histeammates could advance the
season.
He felt good about it.
Karl (08:21):
All right.
Well, that's good to hear and,by the way, for those of you who
are not familiar, Maura is theadmin on the Navy Track and
Field fans Facebook page and I'mpart of that group, so she and
her counterparts do a great jobkeeping everybody up to date on
what's going on with Navy Trackand Field.
So, Maura, thank you for doingthat.
Okay, so in one of your postson that page, you did a nice job
(08:46):
on breaking down what it takesto qualify for the NCAA
championships in whatever event.
It is Okay.
So I was wondering if you couldkind of share some of that
information as it relates toNathan's events.
Maura (08:56):
Yeah, sure.
So actually there were fourathletes that went to nationals,
so Nathan and his threeteammates.
They had to qualify tonationals and they went through
similar rounds.
It didn't matter if you're afield or a running event, it was
similar.
So both Nathan in the 400 andBrahmir Vick in the 110 hurdles,
they went through as runners,while Braden Presser and Javelin
(09:16):
and Josh Boamah shot, put andhammer, they went through as
field events.
So how does it work?
First, the athletes have toattain a minimum qualifying
marker time.
That's just to get to the EastRegional NCAA D1 Outdoor Track
and Field Championships.
This is held every year at thesame time as the academy's
graduation and commission.
To choose right, every yearthere's someone.
(09:46):
Do I try to qualify for theNCAA D1 Nationals or do I take
commission with all my mids, mybuddies, my pals that I've hung
out with the last four years?
Two seniors on the track andfield team.
They opted to take the pass andthey didn't go to the East
Regional Qualifier Track Week.
That's okay, you know.
You got to make your choices.
They participated in commission.
You know all the hoop andcircumstance.
It was awesome.
But there were other seniors.
(10:06):
They chose to compete to tryand earn a spot at nationals.
For many of the men field eventseniors their competitions were
held on Wednesday, so theydidn't have the problem that
women have.
Men competed Wednesday andFriday.
Women were Thursday andSaturday.
So for a woman to go to finals,if she was a runner she didn't
(10:26):
have a chance to go tocommissioning.
But the men in the field events, they could compete on
Wednesday and move forward tograduation.
Unless you were a runner ForBermuda and also Sam Keeney in
the 3,000-meter steeplechase,they chose to skip the
traditional commissioningceremony.
But I learned something thisyear.
It's pretty cool, usna, theyhold a delayed graduation
(10:52):
ceremony for athletes and othersthat have extenuating
circumstances.
So Vermeer and Sam, afterthey'd finished competing at the
East Regional Qualifier meet,they were able to come back to
Naval Academy.
They had an intimate graduationceremony that only include two
other meds, so four.
They had all the same keypeople, all the same wonderful
(11:13):
speeches, but only four of them.
So it was really neat to look atthe pictures and see the
experience and you got to invite50 people per graduate and they
all got to sit up close andpersonal.
They're all the same.
I mean it was really actuallydifferent.
I'm kind of thinking kind of aneat, cool graduation experience
right, right, but for thosestable academy track and field
athletes that want to continuetheir season.
(11:35):
Those athletes had to run orthrow a mark that was in the top
48.
So they went to the eastregional.
They had to.
To get there they had to havethe best mark of running shot.
You know, javelin, whatever youhad to have the 41 to 48 best
marks.
West regional they do the samething.
So you have the countries kindof divided.
So the east region, the westregion, and they hold their
(11:58):
meets on the same day.
They have the same platform offour days for qualifying from
that meet to advance tonationals who have to be top 12.
So only the top 12 on the eastand the top 12 from the west
make it to nationals per eventand when you really step back
and think about it's like holycow.
(12:19):
That's a lot of kids thatdidn't make it, that are quite
amazing athletes.
And one of the throws coacheson the track team at Naval
Academy in the stands yesterdayhe was sharing he did the math
and he said only half of 1% ofall collegiate D1 track and
field athletes actually make itto nationals.
Karl (12:38):
Wow.
Maura (12:39):
So I never did the numbers, but it makes sense.
Karl (12:42):
Yeah, it does.
I never did the numbers.
Maura (12:43):
But it makes sense.
Yeah, when you think about allthe bowl games for football and
a whole team goes to a bowl game, a lot more get to go to a
football bowl game than a trackathlete can make.
It 24, 24 make it to nationalsfor event.
So once they're in Eugene,oregon, the format of men is the
same as it was in the EastRegional Men go Wednesday and
(13:03):
Friday and women go Thursday andSaturday.
So Brahmir and Nathan they had,because they're track athletes,
they had a two-day competitionformat.
So on day one all 24 athletescompete in that event and for a
running event and let's just usethose guys because there was
more sprinting hurdle eventsthree heats, eight athletes per
(13:25):
event, only top two finishersand then from each of the three
heats and then the top threefastest times make it to
nationals.
For Josh and Brayden, becausethey were in field events, they
take all 24, split them into twoflights, they each get three
attempts and then the nineathletes that have the best nine
(13:46):
throws they go to immediatelyinto finals.
So where for the field eventguys, they were all done on
Wednesday.
Had premier and Nathan advancedto finals, they would have been
Wednesday and then Friday.
Karl (13:58):
Right right.
Maura (13:59):
So that's how that qualifying worked, okay, yeah.
Karl (14:02):
So, yeah, that was a good.
That was a good piece ofknowledge for me, because I did
not realize it was, you know,top 48 to get to, uh, the
regional qualifier.
Um, I thought it was just okay,here's your, here's your time.
If you can beat that time,you're good, but obviously
that's not the case.
But, uh, okay.
So we're going to get into alittle bit more of that later.
When it comes to how Nathan ranthroughout the year, but I was
(14:24):
wondering if you could sharewith us.
When was it, you know,recognizing that he had pretty
solid times throughout theseason?
When was it that you realized,ok, well, he's a deadlock for at
least getting to regionalsbecause he's got a top 48 time?
What meet was that in?
Maura (14:43):
I don't know that you can say there's a deadlock and the
reason I say that call is everyweek you don't know where
someone's competing, you don'tknow who's going to hit that PR,
that there's just so muchtalent and it's all the East
Coast colleges and you don'teven see them.
You don't know them.
So you kind of track, you knowtop records, but it's like
what's the right, best websiteto see it.
(15:05):
So, until they put that list out.
So, like for the East RegionalD1 Division One Outdoor Track
and Field Championships, thatthey were held in Kentucky.
But until that list came outyou really didn't know.
You just had to wait.
So, like for Navy, they sent 16men and two women to East
(15:25):
Regional.
Only four athletes, about fiveevents, left Regionals and went
to Nationals.
Karl (15:34):
Right.
Maura (15:35):
The research of some of the coaches is stating that only
it's been since 1945, that Navyhas sent athletes in five
events to nationals.
Karl (15:45):
Wow.
Maura (15:45):
So you don't know, until that last qualifying round, that
last list comes out, if yourchild's going to make it.
Karl (15:52):
Right, you know, what it would be curious to see and
there's probably someplace I canlook this up is when you look
at the number of people thatmove on.
You said top 12 would move onto nationals right from the
regionals.
Like, like, move on, you saidtop 12 would move on to
nationals right From theregionals.
I'd be interested in findingout the difference in time from
(16:12):
that 12th person to the 13thperson, because that would speak
to the level of talent that isobviously present, right?
I mean, can you imagine, I meanjust this, just hundreds of a
second maybe, separating 12 from13.
Maura (16:22):
Yeah, I was going to say literally.
There were times when it washundreds of a second.
It was so close Even atnationals to go from the
semifinals to finals, like inNathan's 400,.
The top three were out there,but the next four to eight they
were almost like right acrossfrom each other.
Karl (16:39):
Yeah.
Maura (16:40):
It was like Thank goodness for a photo.
Finish, you can go back andlook at the video.
Karl (16:45):
That's right.
Right, and yeah, I wanted toget to that in a little bit, but
just out of curiosity, how manytimes are we actually able to
watch Nathan run this year?
Maura (16:54):
My goal every year because Nathan's a three-sport
athlete is one to two events persport.
Kind of spread it out.
This year I was able to get toonly two of his meets before
nationals.
Happy to get to only two of hismeets before nationals, I'm
happy to get them.
I don't live in the state.
I don't even live near thestate, so it makes it
challenging, Darn it.
They don't have track andfootball games down in Alabama,
(17:16):
Although we do have a footballgame this coming fall in Alabama
.
I'm excited.
Karl (17:20):
That's right.
So let me ask you this whetheryou are watching Nathan run in
person or on TV, like say onESPN Plus or something like that
, as a former track athleteyourself, what goes through your
mind when you watch him race?
Just to kind of preface this alittle bit, you know, my son was
not a track guy, he was abasketball guy.
But when I watched him play Iwould often try to put myself in
his mind, wondering if he wereactually seeing the same thing
(17:42):
as he was bringing the ball upthe court and the play was
developing in front of him, orif he's taking free throws.
I'm right there going throughthe routine with him in my head,
you know.
So when you are watching Nathanrun, what sort of things are
kind of going through your mind?
Are you just there cheering, orare you just kind of thinking,
okay, what's his strategy, orhow's the race shaping up?
And you know stuff like that.
Maura (18:02):
Two approaches.
One is prayer.
I just want him not to beinjured.
I want to perform the best hecan and I want him to give god
the glory for what he does.
I don't want it ever to be.
Oh, look at me, I'm this greatathlete.
It's his, you know, it's hisrelationship with the lord, but
he, you know, he's got to givegod the glory for what he's
doing.
And that that's where I see,when I'm, when I'm thinking
about his races, it is I amlearning, as a parent, to ask
(18:27):
questions.
You know, as we go into therace, do you want to talk, do
you want space?
Can I ask questions?
Do I wait till later?
And so I've learned to askthose questions up front so I
don't get in the way.
So you know, as an athlete, hedoesn't get to hang out with mom
before he races.
I don't usually see him untilafter the last event is done at
a track meet, and then he cancome up in the stands.
So it's just you know, just God.
(18:49):
Give it to God, wishing thebest that he can be and see what
happens.
Karl (18:54):
Right, right, okay, we're going to go ahead and take a
short break now, but before wedo that, I did want to give you
all a couple of ways to stay upto date on Navy sports.
The first is to join the NavySports Nation group Facebook
page.
I've got a link to that in theshow notes.
Just click on it, answer acouple of questions and you'll
be good to go.
The second way takes even lesstime.
Just hit the follow button onwhichever platform you're
(19:15):
listening to this podcast rightnow.
It can be Apple Podcasts,Spotify, iheartradio, it doesn't
matter.
Once you do that, every episodewill be downloaded to your
directory when it's released andyou can listen to it whenever
you're ready.
So please consider becoming amember of our group and you can
actually tap that follow buttonright now to show your support
for the podcast.
I'm looking forward to havingyou join us.
We'll be right back.
Welcome back to Navy SportsCentral.
(19:52):
Karl Darden here with you, andtoday we're joined by Maura Kent
, whose son, nathan, recentlycompeted in the 400 meters at
the NCAA Outdoor Track and FieldChampionships no-transcript
(20:27):
everyone.
Maura (20:28):
Typically when you come into a track meet, you might
have a favorite Maybe I like thehammer, or I like the long jump
, or I was a hurdle person whenI was younger but they clap for
everyone.
That's what I love about trackand field when the kids come
around, everyone's celebrating.
When that last one comes around, everyone's clapping them in.
It's not like what I'veexperienced on some of my kids
(20:51):
in some other team sports whereyou've got negativity or
bullying or just you're justlike ick.
You don't get that with track.
People are awesome and dynamiteand it's just.
It's really a nice experiencethere yeah, yeah, that's uh.
Karl (21:03):
That's the kind of feeling that I get when I'm watching,
and especially when you catch iton the weekends, when
everything is kind of actuallystarting on Friday, when
everything's kind of comingtogether in all the finals races
and stuff like that.
It's really really exciting towatch.
And again, a lot of it just hasto do with the location because
of how famous it is and thatsort of thing.
And I know you had mentionedearlier that you don't get a
(21:25):
chance to see Nathan a lotbefore a meet, obviously, but do
you have a sense for what hispre-race routine is in terms of
how he gets ready, how heprepares, music he listens to?
I'm always kind of curiousabout that sort of thing, so I
did not know if he shared thatwith you.
Maura (21:40):
You know, what's really nice this year is we had two
throwers and we had two runners,so they had a buddy to warm up
with.
So they typically, when theyget off the plane, if there's
time that evening, when they getto their designated site, they
try and do a shakeout workout.
My observation of listening tothe athletes and talking with
them they do that's what theycall a shakeout and they get out
(22:03):
and they you know Coach Cookhas trained them all they know
what they need to do and theyget their stride in and they do
it.
At this stage in the game, yougot it or you don't.
Nothing's going to changemaking you faster.
You got it or you don't.
So you have your routine, yougo through it.
Nathan doesn't always wear aheadset.
He has some music he does enjoyhearing, but he's just in.
(22:27):
They're in their head.
Karl (22:28):
Right, preparing and thinking for it.
Okay, so let's get to the raceitself.
I remember tuning it in andjust watching how everything
lined up.
Now, in that particular race,the 400, lane one, I believe,
was open and Nathan had lane two, which, even though I'm not a
track guy, I know that you knowrunning on those one, those
(22:51):
first two inside lanes, isn'toptimal.
But one advantage is okay I cansee basically everybody in
front of me here, so you knowthat's something anyway.
So, uh, after the, the startersgun went off and the race
started to develop.
Based on what you know about howhe runs, did everything kind of
play out the way you thought?
I'm really kind of curious toget your take because for my
money.
And again, I just wanted to sayupfront that I'm not an expert
(23:13):
in track and field, but I'vebeen following it a long time as
a fan and certainly the quarteris one of my favorite races.
And one of the things I noticedwas that that last straightaway
was that that last straightawayhe stayed strong all the way
through to the finish.
And I think that when I sawthat time come across and we'll
talk about it in a second, it's45.85, I said okay, fourth place
(23:35):
in the heat.
Granted, there's two heats togo, but who knows, that might
hold up, we'll see.
But I just was pretty impressedwith the fact that, a he was
not intimidated by anybody thatwas out there and, b, it was a
strong rush to the finish line,to the point where he was able
to, you know, kind of get hischest in front of those other
guys that were right therearriving with him.
Maura (23:56):
Yeah, to address your first question about lane one
empty, you were right, it's anine-lane track and for the
semifinal sprint heats they leftlane one empty and then they
ran lane two through eight and,uh, lane two and lane not really
the most difficult races lanesin the 400 either name lane nine
.
You're busting your butt, oh no.
No one's gonna catch you, youhave no idea how they're coming
(24:18):
from right or lane two, it feelslike you're chasing everybody.
Right, right I mean in realityit's the same distance but it's
still challenging.
And as crazy as it is, thefastest 400-meter runner in the
world is a sophomore at Georgia.
He was in both of Nathan'squalifying heats at the East
(24:38):
Regional and he was in Nathan'squalifying heat here in Eugene.
So it's like darn, only twopeople people going.
I got the world's fastest 400meter in my heat.
So, um, guidance from coachcook was gosh, fast as you can
and hold on.
So nathan did.
He caught stagger on lane threealmost at the top of the first
(25:01):
curve right and then those twokind of battle back and forth.
I was sitting so where the 100meters start was, I was maybe 20
yards past that and so theycome around that last curve into
the straight away.
They got 100 meters left to run.
I'm thinking he's like 730 andhe, like you, said they.
He just powered through and hefinished him fourth.
(25:23):
He finished, like you said,45.85, 1600ths of a second
office PR.
It ended up being the numberthree spot on the top 10.
You know USNA has been trackingtheir track results for over
100 years, so it's number three.
It was really close.
Looking at it, he displacedMichael Green's time with 4599.
(25:45):
That was set in May 1987.
Karl (25:47):
Yeah.
Maura (25:48):
That was 37 years ago or 17 years before Nathan was born.
So I mean it's, it's so neat tolook at those records and say
these guys have been fast andjump far and throw far for a
long time.
So to make the record boardsjust like wow wow, yeah, yeah,
(26:08):
it's.
Karl (26:09):
it was pretty amazing and I will talk about some of these
other top 10 times here in asecond.
But I you know certainly thatbrought an end to his racing
season, specifically as itrelates to college.
But I understand from speakingwith you yesterday that there
might be more racingopportunities.
Could you kind of share some ofthat info with us?
Maura (26:28):
Yes, I can.
So the way you qualify.
So this is a year of the Junior, not the Junior Olympics.
Goodness, these guys are alladults.
Now the Olympic trials and inthe Olympics in Paris.
So who doesn't want to go tothe Olympics?
Right, but just like qualifyingto the NCAA Division I
Nationals has a process.
You have to go to the olympics,right, but just like qualifying
to the NCaa division onenationals has a process you have
(26:48):
to go through.
So does the Olympic trials.
So to get to the Olympic trials, you have to have the mark, you
have to have the time, but thenyou also have to have it within
a certain standard.
So you have four Mids thatcompeted at nationals.
But Zaz Guillaume also, whojust missed going to nationals,
(27:09):
but he's missed, met thestandards.
So what are the standards?
There's two qualifying marks.
One is called the minimum.
You hit that minimum, you'remaking olympic trials.
It doesn't matter how manyqualified minimum you make, it's
darn fast.
It's like most of yourprofessional athletes, the ones
that are out of college, thoseare the ones that are making the
(27:30):
minimums, but there are a fewcollegiate athletes that have.
But then they have this othermark, which is our happy place
and that's called the qualifyingstandards, and all four of the
guys who are nationals plus Zazhave met the qualifying standard
.
But this is how it works.
Right, in the men's runningraces they only take 35 athletes
(27:53):
In the throwing events.
So for Josh and Brayden only 24make.
Karl (27:59):
Olympic trials Okay.
Maura (28:01):
So now what you're doing is you're sitting on a bubble
and it's that waiting game,right?
So to get to the Olympic trials, to ideally extend your season,
you have to be in the top 35 ortop 24.
So they have, they're in theprocess of doing the application
.
The deadline for anybody in theunited states, you know, got to
(28:22):
be a citizen god, you know,I'll check all the boxes is june
11th.
Then you have this thing calleddeclare.
You look at all the people thathave entered your race.
Maybe you're, you're like oneof those phenoms.
You've qualified in two orthree events, but do you think
you can do that at the Olympiclevel?
Maybe you only want to do oneor only want to do two.
So you have to declare thatdeclaration date closes on June
(28:44):
13th.
Karl (28:45):
Wow, okay.
Maura (28:45):
Olympic trials are Friday .
They start Friday, June 21st.
Karl (28:49):
Okay.
Maura (28:50):
So between the 13th and the 21st the United States will
make that decision.
The Olympic Committee, whothey're going to take in those
numbers?
They got the inside skinny andall that.
Karl (29:05):
So our guys, in the meantime, they have to keep
training.
Maura (29:08):
So Zaz and Nathan didn't graduate.
The other three guys aregraduating.
Zaz and Nathan they still.
The other three guys aregraduating.
Karl (29:11):
Right.
Maura (29:12):
Zaz and Nathan.
They still have the militaryduties.
They still have the othertraining they have to do Right
right.
Nathan is a football player AllNCAA Division I football
players.
They have to take summer schoolat the school, so he's got to
do that.
So that's kind of where he's at.
But how exciting would that beto have Josh Braden, zaz, ramir,
nathan all represent the NavalAcademy at the Olympic Trials.
Karl (29:35):
That would be something.
Maura (29:36):
That would be just a happy place, happy place.
Karl (29:38):
For sure.
Okay, so recognizing thatthat's still a possibility, I
wanted to get your take on howthe year finished versus what
both your expectations were andNathan's expectations were at
the beginning of the outdoorseason.
Okay, because I'm looking athis track record here no pun
intended, but just a stellaryear.
(30:01):
I mean 200, 400 meter championagainst army, 200, 400 meter
champion in the Patriot Leaguechampionships, both indoor and
outdoor.
So was that something that hesaw coming or you saw coming, or
?
I mean, certainly you alwayswant to perform your best, but
here we've got a young man who'sjust finishing his second year
at a pretty demandinginstitution and his name is
(30:22):
already scattered all over therecord books.
What was Nathan's take on howtrack season went and what was
yours?
Maura (30:28):
I don't know an athlete out there that doesn't want to
be the best they can be.
Karl (30:30):
Certainly.
Maura (30:31):
And everyone wants to cross that finish line in first.
There is some really goodtalent both on the Academy that
go against Nathan.
There are a couple of reallygood 400 meter runners right
there on the Academy team thatpush him, push him hard.
And you don't know.
You don't know from week toweek, meet to meet, which one's
going to cross that finish linefirst.
(30:51):
you don't know, from week toweek meet to meet which one's
going to cross that finish linefirst.
They're that good, they're thatclose together.
So, yeah, he absolutely wouldlove to be first and everything.
He wanted to go to finals thisyear at nationals.
But he made it to nationalslast year, he just made it to
finals at the East regional.
This year he went a stepfurther and he made it to
nationals.
So let's's, you know, the goalis okay.
I've been here, done it, seenit.
(31:11):
Now next year, let's see if hecan be on the podium, can he?
Can he make it happen next yearat nationals?
right right but yeah, um, whatdid we think at the beginning of
the outdoor?
You know anything can happen.
You don't know.
You don't know who the newrecruits are, the other schools
when you start up, you don'tknow who's going to get injured,
what, what's going to happen.
There's so many variables ontrack.
(31:33):
I'm grateful he's not hurt.
I'm grateful that he's endingthe season well and I look
forward to see what his what doyou call him second class Next
year at the Naval Academy.
How that's going to work.
Karl (31:45):
Now we've been talking about the 400 meters and you
mentioned there's other athleteswho really push him in practice
.
Yes, I was looking specificallyat the group of athletes that
Nathan ran his 4x400 meterrelays with At the NCAA East
Region Qualifier.
He ran the 4x400 with PeteDeJong, Jay Evans and then Zaz,
who you just mentioned before,and they posted the best time in
(32:07):
program history for the 4x400with a time of 3.04.59.
That was actually about twoseconds better than the previous
best time that this same groupset about a year ago.
So he's got all those guyscoming back with him.
Maura (32:18):
There's another one.
Karl (32:19):
Go ahead.
Maura (32:20):
David Walker is an incoming plebe this last year
and he is solid.
He has a very good chance inthe 400 hurdles and the open 400
, and he ran a couple differenttimes on the 4x4 also.
So there are five that aregoing to be back next year.
Karl (32:34):
So there's another opportunity for qualifying right
, I mean as a relay team 100%.
Maura (32:40):
So that's a really good point you brought up, because
actually their 4x4 at the EastRegional Meet took 14.
Remember, only 12 go toNationals.
However, that same time, hadthey ran it on the West Regional
Meet, they would have beatthree or four teams and they
would have gone to nationals.
Karl (32:58):
Oh man Wow.
Maura (32:59):
You know, it just is.
There were some solid teams onthe East regional relays that
they were going up against.
Karl (33:07):
Yeah, that's crazy how things work out sometimes.
So let's go ahead and stickwith this theme of best times
for a minute Right now.
If I look at the Navy records,the top 10 Navy records, it
looks like Nathan has four ofthe top 10 200-meter times
outdoors.
And then he's got right now thesecond and third fastest times
(33:27):
in the 400, both of which wereset.
Well, one of them was just theother day and the other one was
set, I believe, at regionals.
But the thing that caught myeye, maura, was when I looked at
the 100 meter time outdoors.
I'm going wait what Nathan'sname was at the top of the list
there.
When did that happen?
And you know how did it evencome to the fact that he ran
(33:49):
that?
I've I've always known him as aMichael Johnson type of
sprinter 200 and 400, 400 meterrelay.
You know that sort of thing.
Maura (33:57):
He actually doesn't get the chance to run a hundred very
often.
Um, there's not a limit in thenumber of events you can compete
in, but there's wisdom and thecoach, and especially if there's
trials and finals, you can'tput a kid in too many excuse me,
they're not kids, them and thecoach.
And especially if there'strials and finals, you can't put
a kid in too many?
Excuse me, they're not kids.
I'm in into too many events butin my background, looking at
(34:18):
what he's done, he used to be800 meter runner so.
I asked him even at nationals wegot on the 800 again.
So he does like the shorterraces.
He enjoys the 100 he's cook isamazing.
Coach Cook has really worked onhis turnover and the speed and
yeah, no, I, I, you know, I, Ilike to see him succeed.
(34:38):
A hundred meter school record,that wasn't something I was even
thinking about Cause, like yousaid, I saw more as a two, four
and even an eight guy.
So it is really cool that he wasable to drop that in.
Wow, wow, okay, so I think thatcovers Wow, wow, okay.
Karl (34:52):
So I think that covers everything, mara.
Is there anything that Ihaven't asked, that you want to
get out there, just in terms ofthe experience you had, and
everything.
Maura (34:59):
I just want to thank all the parents, because the your
Mid is my Mid is alive and realin the world of track and field.
With any sport, with anyactivity that happens at the
academy, we can't get everywhereand I think that's the hardest
thing for us as parental units.
We were used to watching ourkids and going to their stuff,
and we can't Even at the EastRegional.
(35:21):
Two of the kids that werecompeting had younger siblings
graduating from high school.
Their parents had to choose DoI go to my other child's high
school graduation or do I go tothe East regional meet, where my
kid might be done with theseason and not even advanced to
the next round?
You just can't be everywhereand I I can't thank the parents
(35:42):
enough.
You know, grab Nathan up, takehim out to grab a bite to eat or
get a smoothie or whatever itis.
You know it's.
This is a really greatcommunity.
It is not just about my.
My child is about everyone'schild and these kids they're
better for it.
And the coaching staff, fromthe personal trainers, the
(36:03):
athletic trainers I guess Ishould call them correctly the
coaches they're committed, theycare and, as you know, nathan
basically ran out of his shoesat the end of east regional.
His shoes were tearing.
He needed a new pair of shoes.
I was like I don't know if Ieven have time to order them and
get them here, and devon thehurdle coach goes.
I got a pair and spotted nathana pair of shoes.
(36:25):
He didn't have to do that buthe did, and so it's just that
total care of each other.
It's really awesome.
Karl (36:33):
Yeah, yeah.
And, by the way, I did seeDevin Allen interviewed right
before Premier ran and he kindof, you know, he gave him a nice
shout out to both Premier andNathan before their races, so
that was cool that he sharedthat.
Maura (36:46):
That is neat.
I hadn't seen that interview.
That's cool.
Karl (36:48):
Yeah, so anyway, maura, that about does it for us.
Listen again, I want to thankyou so much for turning this
around so quickly.
We spoke less than 24 hours ago.
I'm just glad we were able tobring everything together.
Again, congratulations to youand your son and to the entire
track and field team, thecoaches and the staff, on a
fantastic year, and I'm lookingforward to seeing Nathan and his
(37:10):
teammates compete again nextyear.
Maura (37:12):
Thank you, yeah, it's.
It's going to be exciting tosee what the next year holds.
Let's see what junior I meanthe Olympic trials holds.
Karl (37:18):
Yeah, for sure.
Maura (37:19):
It would be awesome to see these five make it.
Karl (37:21):
Yep, yep.
All right, maura, you take carenow.
Maura (37:23):
Thank you, take care.
Bye-bye.
Karl (37:26):
Okay Coming up next, we've got our question of the day and
our last Mid W mid-watchsegment of the sports season, so
(37:48):
stay close.
Before I get into the questionof the day, I did want to make
sure I wrapped up the discussionon the track team and the four
guys who competed at thenational championships.
Both the men and the women didrepeat as Patriot League
champions and then individually,nathan Kent won the 200 and 400
meter titles, Brahmir Vik wasthe champion in the 110 meter
hurdles, Braden Presser tookfirst in the javelin and Josh
(38:12):
Boamah beat everyone to win thediscus, hammer throw and shot
put.
And at nationals Boamah pickedup an All-American honorable
mention in both the shot put andthe hammer throw, while Kent,
Vick and Presser took secondteam All-America honors in their
respective events.
So it was a great way for theseathletes to finish out the year
.
Now on to our question of theday, but first let's go back and
check the responses to the lastone, which was from our
(38:33):
conversation with Navy baseballhitting coach Jeff Kane.
The question was how many timeshas the Navy baseball team won
the Patriot League Championshipssince joining in 1991?
Is it A, 2, b 3, c, 5, or D 6?
Okay, so half of you whoresponded went with C five
titles and the rest were splitevenly at 25% between A and B,
(38:54):
which was two and threechampionships respectively.
Nobody wound up choosing D, andit turns out that D six titles
is actually the correct answer.
The mids won their firstPatriot League crown in 1994,
and then they followed that upwith back-to-back championships
in 1998 and 99.
Since then, they've won threemore times in 2002, 2011, and
2016.
(39:15):
So we're looking at what willbe nine years since their last
title when next season starts,and you know that ending that
streak is going to be a primarygoal from day one.
All right, now let's get to thisweek's question.
Here we go.
Braden Presser was just namedan NCAA All-American in outdoor
track and field in the Javelinfor the third straight year.
When was the last time someonefrom the men's track team earned
this distinction of qualifyingas an All-American for three
(39:36):
consecutive seasons?
In his event, was it A 1947, b1976, c 1983, or D 2012?
Go ahead and spend some time onthat and let me know what you
think.
And, by the way, this would bea great opportunity to respond
by sending us a text message,especially if you don't happen
to be a member of our NavySports Nation Facebook group.
(39:57):
So give that a try by going tothe show notes and clicking on
the link, and then you can justtype in your answer into the
text box and hit send.
If you want to include yourname and where you're from, I'll
be happy to give you a shoutout on our next show and, of
course, I'll also post thequestion of the day on our group
Facebook page.
Okay, now let's wrap things upwith our last mid-watch segment,
and I will tell you that bothathletes that we're tracking
(40:17):
ended up having terrific seasons.
First we'll go ahead and take alook at Brock Murtha from the
Navy baseball team.
He led the mids in two keycategories with a 345 batting
average and an OPS of 81,.
His slugging and on-basepercentages were a team best.
Also, in one of his best gamesof the year against Lehigh,
murtha went three for three witha home run and a double, while
knocking in six runs.
The Mids ended up winning thatgame 12 to 2.
(40:40):
Murtha also did a terrific jobfielding his position at second
base.
He posted a fielding average of985, which was good for second
on the team.
He just finished his sophomoreyear, so Murtha's got a couple
more seasons to have a reallybig impact on the Navy program
and with the talent he's gotaround him, I think it's pretty
reasonable to expect that theteam will be challenging Army
again for the Patriot Leaguetitle next season.
(41:01):
Now let's check in with EmilyMessinese from the women's
lacrosse team.
She finished out the year asthe leader in goals, with 68,
and she tacked on 18 assists,which also earned her the top
spot in points with 86.
Besides that, messonese wassecond on the team in draw
controls with 64.
She had an excellent gameagainst Loyola in the Patriot
League Championship game,scoring five goals on just eight
(41:24):
shots, and when you look at howher game has developed over the
last two seasons, I get thesense that her final year at
Navy could be a memorable one.
And, by the way, I did want tomention one more thing before
signing off Regarding the talenton this team.
Navy's top seven goal scorersin 2024 were responsible for 87%
of the offense, which is prettyincredible.
They produced 261 of the 300goals that the Mids had, and
every single one of thoseplayers is coming back next year
(41:48):
.
That's going to do it for thisedition of Navy Sports Central.
Thank you all so much forjoining us Now.
If you like what you've heard,please be sure to hit that
follow button wherever you getyour podcasts, and remember to
get the word to all the otherNavy fans out there.
Once again, I'd like to thankMaura Kent for joining me today.
It was so great to have herback to share her perspective on
the NCAA championships, andcongratulations to her son,
(42:13):
nathan, for his fantastic seasonon the track.
Our question of the daycontinues to be a show favorite.
You can get in on that byjoining the Navy Sports Nation
group Facebook page and givingyour answer to this week's
question.
You can also respond by sendingus a text.
All you need to do is click onthe link in the show notes.
And just a quick reminder theviews expressed on Navy Sports
Central are my own and do notreflect those of the US Naval
Academy or Navy Athletics.
By the way, the music used inNavy Sports Central comes to you
(42:35):
courtesy of Audio Jungle.
This is a great site forpurchasing the rights to use the
music from thousands of artistsaround the world, and those
featured in the podcast will becredited in our show notes.
Talk to you soon, everybody.
Until next time.
This is Karl Darden Go NavyBeat Army.
Hi everybody, my name is Karl Darden and I'd like to
welcome and thank all of you forjoining us today on Navy Sports
Central.
I'm your host and this is theofficial podcast of the Navy
Sports Nation, where we take adeeper dive into Navy sports.
This is the official podcast ofthe Navy Sports Nation where we
take a deeper dive into Navysports.
With the conclusion of the NCAATrack and Field Championships,
the Navy Athletics 2024 seasonis now over the Mids, finished
up another terrific year, and wewill recap some of those
(00:34):
accomplishments in our sportsupdate.
In our deep dive segment, weactually have a returning guest
who was nice enough to join uson some very short notice to
give us her perspective on theoutdoor track season and what it
was like to be at the DivisionI Championships in Eugene,
Oregon.
I've got all that, plus ourquestion of the day and
mid-watch segment coming rightup, so stay with us.
All right, so glad.
(01:05):
You could all join us today onNavy Sports Central, whether
this is your first visit or youare a regular listener.
Thanks for taking the time.
Before we get into our sportsupdate, I do have a couple of
things to share with you.
First of all, I absolutely gotclobbered with work-related
stuff last month, which pushedthe podcast to the back burner
for a while, so my apologies forthat.
That's pretty much all finishednow, and even though it's
(01:27):
pretty quiet in the yard duringthe summer when it comes to Navy
sports, I've got some thoughtsfor at least two or three
episodes before things crankback up in a couple of months.
I also want to let you knowabout a new feature I think
you'll really like.
This podcast is hosted by acompany called Buzzsprout, and
they're always looking for waysto help us get and stay
connected to our audience, andlast month they came up with
(01:47):
something I think is pretty cool.
From now on, you'll be able tosend the show a text message
while you're listening.
So here's how it works.
When you go to the show notes,you'll see a link just above
where they begin that reads sendus a text message.
All you have to do is click onit and then type in your message
.
It and then type in yourmessage.
You will see a seven-digitnumber in the text box as well,
and you're going to want toleave that in place, because
(02:08):
that's what links the textmessage to my podcast.
Using this feature will allowyou to answer the question of
the day even before the show isover.
In fact, I'd like to invite youto respond to this week's
question using this link, andI'll be sure to give you a shout
out on the next show as well.
I plan to start working on assoon as I release this one.
Okay, that does it for all theadmin stuff.
Let's go ahead and get into aquick sports update.
(02:28):
I'm basically going to recaphow most of the teams finished
out the spring season, so let'sstart with lacrosse.
The men got to the semifinalsof the Patriot League tournament
.
They beat Loyola in thequarterfinals 12-10, but
couldn't get past Lehigh in thesemis.
The Mountain Hawks came out ontop 12-8 in that one, and then
they wound up beating BostonUniversity to qualify for the
tournament.
Now for the season.
(02:49):
The Mids finished with a 9-7record, and they were also 5-3
in conference play.
The women got all the way tothe Patriot League Championship
game against Loyola, and that'sa team that hasn't lost a
conference game in like fiveyears.
In fact, that was to Navy in2019.
This game was back and forththe whole way.
Neither team led by more thantwo goals.
Emily Messinese got Navy evenat 11 apiece, with just over two
(03:10):
minutes left in regulation, andthen the game went into
overtime.
Less than 30 seconds later itwas all over, with the
Greyhounds scoring following aNavy penalty.
It was a tough way to close outthe season, but this Navy team
has a boatload of talent comingback next year and Loyola looked
beatable on more than oneoccasion this season.
So we'll see if the Mids can'tturn the tables on them in 2025.
(03:31):
In the meantime, they can bepretty proud of their 15-4
record.
They were also 8-1 in leagueplay, which included a Star
Series clinching win over Armyin April.
Moving on to baseball, the Midsfinished up a solid season under
first-year coach Chuck Ristano.
They were 15-10 in PatriotLeague play and got to the
championship game, but weren'table to dethrone Army, which
took the best-of-three series towin the title for the sixth
(03:53):
straight year.
That had to sting more than alittle, because the Mids also
felt short in a three-gameseries against the Black Knights
a month earlier and could notclaim the final star of the
sports season.
But overall, I'd have to say itwas a pretty decent first year
for Coach Ristano and I'm surehe's looking forward to getting
that team to the next level.
The Navy men's rugby teamearned a trip back to the
national championship against StMary's out of California.
(04:14):
This time the Mids could notclimb out of an early hole they
dug for themselves and they felljust short 26-22.
It was a tough loss, for sure,but this team really did beat
expectations in my book,considering how young they are.
So look for the Mids to beright in the thick of things
again next spring.
Both the men's and women'stennis teams made it to the
Patriot League Championshipmatch this year.
(04:35):
The men battled hard againstBoston University and the
Terriers, who were the numberone seed, eventually came out on
top.
The Mids had won the previousfive Patriot League titles.
The second-seeded Navy womenalso took on BU, and here Katie
Lee fought off a couple ofchampionship points in the third
set tiebreaker and finally wonit 8-6 to give the Mids their
first ever Patriot League title.
(04:55):
The team finished 24-7 overalland 4-1 in conference play,
including a big win over Army.
And there is one last thing Iwanted to add.
Obviously, swimming and divingis a winter sport, but the USA
Swimming Olympic Trials are setto start this weekend and the
mids had six swimmers qualify.
They are Matt Murphy, Juan Moraand Michael Phillips in a
200-meter breaststroke, JonahHarm and Patrick Colwell in a
(05:17):
100-meter butterfly and BenIrwin in the 100-meter and
200-meter backstroke.
That's got to be an absolutethrill for those athletes.
Murphy, colwell and Harm justgraduated, so how cool would
that be for them to wrap uptheir Navy careers with a
personal best time at the USOlympic trials.
All right, the last sportsupdate of the season is in the
(05:38):
books, and coming up next wehave our deep dive segment,
where our guest will share someof her perspective while
watching four outstanding Navyathletes compete at the NCAA
Outdoor Track and FieldChampionships.
So please stick around.
(06:09):
You know, one of the things Ienjoy the most about doing this
podcast is having the occasionalopportunity to talk to some of
the parents of Navy athletes,and last summer I had the
pleasure of getting to know MaraKent.
She is the mother of NathanKent, who is not only a wide
receiver on the football team,but he's also a sprinter on the
Navy track and field team.
Mara joined me for an episodelast August and we had a great
conversation that covered arange of topics, including how
she saw her role when it came toraising an elite athlete who is
(06:32):
pretty much training orcompeting for 10 or 11 months
out of the year.
Last month, nathan, who justfinished his sophomore year,
qualified for the NCAA track andfield championships in the 400
meters.
He was joined by Braden Presser, who qualified in the javelin
for the third straight year,vermeer Vick, who punched his
ticket in 110 meter hurdles, andJosh Boma, who qualified in
both the hammer throw and theshot put.
(06:52):
All three of them justgraduated with the class of 2024
.
Anyway, Maura was in Eugene,Oregon, to take it all in and
she joins us here today to shareher experience.
All right, Maura.
Thanks for joining me today onNavy Sports Central, especially
on such short notice.
I know we were in communicationyesterday to see if we can set
this up, so thank you for makingthe time.
Maura (07:10):
Oh, absolutely.
It's always an honor torecognize these athletes and
what they've done.
Thank you for this chance.
Karl (07:16):
Yeah, no problem.
First of all, I wanted to getyour thoughts on how Nathan felt
going into the outdoor season.
I know he came off of indoorslooking really strong.
He was the Patriot Leaguechampion in both the 200 and the
400.
So he had to be feeling prettygood from a confidence
standpoint, right.
Maura (07:32):
Yeah, thank you for your kind words about how he did it
indoors.
Always fun that you actuallytrack the athletes and they're
out there on our fans and familypages.
Thank you for that, but timestream rolls around.
You know Nathan's alreadycompeted for the Naval Academy
in the fall football team.
He's done winter indoor track.
So heading into spring outdoortrack season is a lot but he
(07:53):
loves it.
Why?
It's because the mids on bothteams are incredible.
His coaching staff for bothfootball and track.
They work together to ensure heisn't more out tore up
exhausted by the end of eachseason.
He often is rested every otherweekend during the winter and
spring track seasons.
That allows him to stay freshand excited.
So yes, heading into the springoutdoor track season, he was
(08:16):
ready to see how far he and histeammates could advance the
season.
He felt good about it.
Karl (08:21):
All right.
Well, that's good to hear and,by the way, for those of you who
are not familiar, Maura is theadmin on the Navy Track and
Field fans Facebook page and I'mpart of that group, so she and
her counterparts do a great jobkeeping everybody up to date on
what's going on with Navy Trackand Field.
So, Maura, thank you for doingthat.
Okay, so in one of your postson that page, you did a nice job
(08:46):
on breaking down what it takesto qualify for the NCAA
championships in whatever event.
It is Okay.
So I was wondering if you couldkind of share some of that
information as it relates toNathan's events.
Maura (08:56):
Yeah, sure.
So actually there were fourathletes that went to nationals,
so Nathan and his threeteammates.
They had to qualify tonationals and they went through
similar rounds.
It didn't matter if you're afield or a running event, it was
similar.
So both Nathan in the 400 andBrahmir Vick in the 110 hurdles,
they went through as runners,while Braden Presser and Javelin
(09:16):
and Josh Boamah shot, put andhammer, they went through as
field events.
So how does it work?
First, the athletes have toattain a minimum qualifying
marker time.
That's just to get to the EastRegional NCAA D1 Outdoor Track
and Field Championships.
This is held every year at thesame time as the academy's
graduation and commission.
To choose right, every yearthere's someone.
(09:46):
Do I try to qualify for theNCAA D1 Nationals or do I take
commission with all my mids, mybuddies, my pals that I've hung
out with the last four years?
Two seniors on the track andfield team.
They opted to take the pass andthey didn't go to the East
Regional Qualifier Track Week.
That's okay, you know.
You got to make your choices.
They participated in commission.
You know all the hoop andcircumstance.
It was awesome.
But there were other seniors.
(10:06):
They chose to compete to tryand earn a spot at nationals.
For many of the men field eventseniors their competitions were
held on Wednesday, so theydidn't have the problem that
women have.
Men competed Wednesday andFriday.
Women were Thursday andSaturday.
So for a woman to go to finals,if she was a runner she didn't
(10:26):
have a chance to go tocommissioning.
But the men in the field events, they could compete on
Wednesday and move forward tograduation.
Unless you were a runner ForBermuda and also Sam Keeney in
the 3,000-meter steeplechase,they chose to skip the
traditional commissioningceremony.
But I learned something thisyear.
It's pretty cool, usna, theyhold a delayed graduation
(10:52):
ceremony for athletes and othersthat have extenuating
circumstances.
So Vermeer and Sam, afterthey'd finished competing at the
East Regional Qualifier meet,they were able to come back to
Naval Academy.
They had an intimate graduationceremony that only include two
other meds, so four.
They had all the same keypeople, all the same wonderful
(11:13):
speeches, but only four of them.
So it was really neat to look atthe pictures and see the
experience and you got to invite50 people per graduate and they
all got to sit up close andpersonal.
They're all the same.
I mean it was really actuallydifferent.
I'm kind of thinking kind of aneat, cool graduation experience
right, right, but for thosestable academy track and field
athletes that want to continuetheir season.
(11:35):
Those athletes had to run orthrow a mark that was in the top
48.
So they went to the eastregional.
They had to.
To get there they had to havethe best mark of running shot.
You know, javelin, whatever youhad to have the 41 to 48 best
marks.
West regional they do the samething.
So you have the countries kindof divided.
So the east region, the westregion, and they hold their
(11:58):
meets on the same day.
They have the same platform offour days for qualifying from
that meet to advance tonationals who have to be top 12.
So only the top 12 on the eastand the top 12 from the west
make it to nationals per eventand when you really step back
and think about it's like holycow.
(12:19):
That's a lot of kids thatdidn't make it, that are quite
amazing athletes.
And one of the throws coacheson the track team at Naval
Academy in the stands yesterdayhe was sharing he did the math
and he said only half of 1% ofall collegiate D1 track and
field athletes actually make itto nationals.
Karl (12:38):
Wow.
Maura (12:39):
So I never did the numbers, but it makes sense.
Karl (12:42):
Yeah, it does.
I never did the numbers.
Maura (12:43):
But it makes sense.
Yeah, when you think about allthe bowl games for football and
a whole team goes to a bowl game, a lot more get to go to a
football bowl game than a trackathlete can make.
It 24, 24 make it to nationalsfor event.
So once they're in Eugene,oregon, the format of men is the
same as it was in the EastRegional Men go Wednesday and
(13:03):
Friday and women go Thursday andSaturday.
So Brahmir and Nathan they had,because they're track athletes,
they had a two-day competitionformat.
So on day one all 24 athletescompete in that event and for a
running event and let's just usethose guys because there was
more sprinting hurdle eventsthree heats, eight athletes per
(13:25):
event, only top two finishersand then from each of the three
heats and then the top threefastest times make it to
nationals.
For Josh and Brayden, becausethey were in field events, they
take all 24, split them into twoflights, they each get three
attempts and then the nineathletes that have the best nine
(13:46):
throws they go to immediatelyinto finals.
So where for the field eventguys, they were all done on
Wednesday.
Had premier and Nathan advancedto finals, they would have been
Wednesday and then Friday.
Karl (13:58):
Right right.
Maura (13:59):
So that's how that qualifying worked, okay, yeah.
Karl (14:02):
So, yeah, that was a good.
That was a good piece ofknowledge for me, because I did
not realize it was, you know,top 48 to get to, uh, the
regional qualifier.
Um, I thought it was just okay,here's your, here's your time.
If you can beat that time,you're good, but obviously
that's not the case.
But, uh, okay.
So we're going to get into alittle bit more of that later.
When it comes to how Nathan ranthroughout the year, but I was
(14:24):
wondering if you could sharewith us.
When was it, you know,recognizing that he had pretty
solid times throughout theseason?
When was it that you realized,ok, well, he's a deadlock for at
least getting to regionalsbecause he's got a top 48 time?
What meet was that in?
Maura (14:43):
I don't know that you can say there's a deadlock and the
reason I say that call is everyweek you don't know where
someone's competing, you don'tknow who's going to hit that PR,
that there's just so muchtalent and it's all the East
Coast colleges and you don'teven see them.
You don't know them.
So you kind of track, you knowtop records, but it's like
what's the right, best websiteto see it.
(15:05):
So, until they put that list out.
So, like for the East RegionalD1 Division One Outdoor Track
and Field Championships, thatthey were held in Kentucky.
But until that list came outyou really didn't know.
You just had to wait.
So, like for Navy, they sent 16men and two women to East
(15:25):
Regional.
Only four athletes, about fiveevents, left Regionals and went
to Nationals.
Karl (15:34):
Right.
Maura (15:35):
The research of some of the coaches is stating that only
it's been since 1945, that Navyhas sent athletes in five
events to nationals.
Karl (15:45):
Wow.
Maura (15:45):
So you don't know, until that last qualifying round, that
last list comes out, if yourchild's going to make it.
Karl (15:52):
Right, you know, what it would be curious to see and
there's probably someplace I canlook this up is when you look
at the number of people thatmove on.
You said top 12 would move onto nationals right from the
regionals.
Like, like, move on, you saidtop 12 would move on to
nationals right From theregionals.
I'd be interested in findingout the difference in time from
(16:12):
that 12th person to the 13thperson, because that would speak
to the level of talent that isobviously present, right?
I mean, can you imagine, I meanjust this, just hundreds of a
second maybe, separating 12 from13.
Maura (16:22):
Yeah, I was going to say literally.
There were times when it washundreds of a second.
It was so close Even atnationals to go from the
semifinals to finals, like inNathan's 400,.
The top three were out there,but the next four to eight they
were almost like right acrossfrom each other.
Karl (16:39):
Yeah.
Maura (16:40):
It was like Thank goodness for a photo.
Finish, you can go back andlook at the video.
Karl (16:45):
That's right.
Right, and yeah, I wanted toget to that in a little bit, but
just out of curiosity, how manytimes are we actually able to
watch Nathan run this year?
Maura (16:54):
My goal every year because Nathan's a three-sport
athlete is one to two events persport.
Kind of spread it out.
This year I was able to get toonly two of his meets before
nationals.
Happy to get to only two of hismeets before nationals, I'm
happy to get them.
I don't live in the state.
I don't even live near thestate, so it makes it
challenging, Darn it.
They don't have track andfootball games down in Alabama,
(17:16):
Although we do have a footballgame this coming fall in Alabama
.
I'm excited.
Karl (17:20):
That's right.
So let me ask you this whetheryou are watching Nathan run in
person or on TV, like say onESPN Plus or something like that
, as a former track athleteyourself, what goes through your
mind when you watch him race?
Just to kind of preface this alittle bit, you know, my son was
not a track guy, he was abasketball guy.
But when I watched him play Iwould often try to put myself in
his mind, wondering if he wereactually seeing the same thing
(17:42):
as he was bringing the ball upthe court and the play was
developing in front of him, orif he's taking free throws.
I'm right there going throughthe routine with him in my head,
you know.
So when you are watching Nathanrun, what sort of things are
kind of going through your mind?
Are you just there cheering, orare you just kind of thinking,
okay, what's his strategy, orhow's the race shaping up?
And you know stuff like that.
Maura (18:02):
Two approaches.
One is prayer.
I just want him not to beinjured.
I want to perform the best hecan and I want him to give god
the glory for what he does.
I don't want it ever to be.
Oh, look at me, I'm this greatathlete.
It's his, you know, it's hisrelationship with the lord, but
he, you know, he's got to givegod the glory for what he's
doing.
And that that's where I see,when I'm, when I'm thinking
about his races, it is I amlearning, as a parent, to ask
(18:27):
questions.
You know, as we go into therace, do you want to talk, do
you want space?
Can I ask questions?
Do I wait till later?
And so I've learned to askthose questions up front so I
don't get in the way.
So you know, as an athlete, hedoesn't get to hang out with mom
before he races.
I don't usually see him untilafter the last event is done at
a track meet, and then he cancome up in the stands.
So it's just you know, just God.
(18:49):
Give it to God, wishing thebest that he can be and see what
happens.
Karl (18:54):
Right, right, okay, we're going to go ahead and take a
short break now, but before wedo that, I did want to give you
all a couple of ways to stay upto date on Navy sports.
The first is to join the NavySports Nation group Facebook
page.
I've got a link to that in theshow notes.
Just click on it, answer acouple of questions and you'll
be good to go.
The second way takes even lesstime.
Just hit the follow button onwhichever platform you're
(19:15):
listening to this podcast rightnow.
It can be Apple Podcasts,Spotify, iheartradio, it doesn't
matter.
Once you do that, every episodewill be downloaded to your
directory when it's released andyou can listen to it whenever
you're ready.
So please consider becoming amember of our group and you can
actually tap that follow buttonright now to show your support
for the podcast.
I'm looking forward to havingyou join us.
We'll be right back.
Welcome back to Navy SportsCentral.
(19:52):
Karl Darden here with you, andtoday we're joined by Maura Kent
, whose son, nathan, recentlycompeted in the 400 meters at
the NCAA Outdoor Track and FieldChampionships no-transcript
(20:27):
everyone.
Maura (20:28):
Typically when you come into a track meet, you might
have a favorite Maybe I like thehammer, or I like the long jump
, or I was a hurdle person whenI was younger but they clap for
everyone.
That's what I love about trackand field when the kids come
around, everyone's celebrating.
When that last one comes around, everyone's clapping them in.
It's not like what I'veexperienced on some of my kids
(20:51):
in some other team sports whereyou've got negativity or
bullying or just you're justlike ick.
You don't get that with track.
People are awesome and dynamiteand it's just.
It's really a nice experiencethere yeah, yeah, that's uh.
Karl (21:03):
That's the kind of feeling that I get when I'm watching,
and especially when you catch iton the weekends, when
everything is kind of actuallystarting on Friday, when
everything's kind of comingtogether in all the finals races
and stuff like that.
It's really really exciting towatch.
And again, a lot of it just hasto do with the location because
of how famous it is and thatsort of thing.
And I know you had mentionedearlier that you don't get a
(21:25):
chance to see Nathan a lotbefore a meet, obviously, but do
you have a sense for what hispre-race routine is in terms of
how he gets ready, how heprepares, music he listens to?
I'm always kind of curiousabout that sort of thing, so I
did not know if he shared thatwith you.
Maura (21:40):
You know, what's really nice this year is we had two
throwers and we had two runners,so they had a buddy to warm up
with.
So they typically, when theyget off the plane, if there's
time that evening, when they getto their designated site, they
try and do a shakeout workout.
My observation of listening tothe athletes and talking with
them they do that's what theycall a shakeout and they get out
(22:03):
and they you know Coach Cookhas trained them all they know
what they need to do and theyget their stride in and they do
it.
At this stage in the game, yougot it or you don't.
Nothing's going to changemaking you faster.
You got it or you don't.
So you have your routine, yougo through it.
Nathan doesn't always wear aheadset.
He has some music he does enjoyhearing, but he's just in.
(22:27):
They're in their head.
Karl (22:28):
Right, preparing and thinking for it.
Okay, so let's get to the raceitself.
I remember tuning it in andjust watching how everything
lined up.
Now, in that particular race,the 400, lane one, I believe,
was open and Nathan had lane two, which, even though I'm not a
track guy, I know that you knowrunning on those one, those
(22:51):
first two inside lanes, isn'toptimal.
But one advantage is okay I cansee basically everybody in
front of me here, so you knowthat's something anyway.
So, uh, after the, the startersgun went off and the race
started to develop.
Based on what you know about howhe runs, did everything kind of
play out the way you thought?
I'm really kind of curious toget your take because for my
money.
And again, I just wanted to sayupfront that I'm not an expert
(23:13):
in track and field, but I'vebeen following it a long time as
a fan and certainly the quarteris one of my favorite races.
And one of the things I noticedwas that that last straightaway
was that that last straightawayhe stayed strong all the way
through to the finish.
And I think that when I sawthat time come across and we'll
talk about it in a second, it's45.85, I said okay, fourth place
(23:35):
in the heat.
Granted, there's two heats togo, but who knows, that might
hold up, we'll see.
But I just was pretty impressedwith the fact that, a he was
not intimidated by anybody thatwas out there and, b, it was a
strong rush to the finish line,to the point where he was able
to, you know, kind of get hischest in front of those other
guys that were right therearriving with him.
Maura (23:56):
Yeah, to address your first question about lane one
empty, you were right, it's anine-lane track and for the
semifinal sprint heats they leftlane one empty and then they
ran lane two through eight and,uh, lane two and lane not really
the most difficult races lanesin the 400 either name lane nine
.
You're busting your butt, oh no.
No one's gonna catch you, youhave no idea how they're coming
(24:18):
from right or lane two, it feelslike you're chasing everybody.
Right, right I mean in realityit's the same distance but it's
still challenging.
And as crazy as it is, thefastest 400-meter runner in the
world is a sophomore at Georgia.
He was in both of Nathan'squalifying heats at the East
(24:38):
Regional and he was in Nathan'squalifying heat here in Eugene.
So it's like darn, only twopeople people going.
I got the world's fastest 400meter in my heat.
So, um, guidance from coachcook was gosh, fast as you can
and hold on.
So nathan did.
He caught stagger on lane threealmost at the top of the first
(25:01):
curve right and then those twokind of battle back and forth.
I was sitting so where the 100meters start was, I was maybe 20
yards past that and so theycome around that last curve into
the straight away.
They got 100 meters left to run.
I'm thinking he's like 730 andhe, like you, said they.
He just powered through and hefinished him fourth.
(25:23):
He finished, like you said,45.85, 1600ths of a second
office PR.
It ended up being the numberthree spot on the top 10.
You know USNA has been trackingtheir track results for over
100 years, so it's number three.
It was really close.
Looking at it, he displacedMichael Green's time with 4599.
(25:45):
That was set in May 1987.
Karl (25:47):
Yeah.
Maura (25:48):
That was 37 years ago or 17 years before Nathan was born.
So I mean it's, it's so neat tolook at those records and say
these guys have been fast andjump far and throw far for a
long time.
So to make the record boardsjust like wow wow, yeah, yeah,
(26:08):
it's.
Karl (26:09):
it was pretty amazing and I will talk about some of these
other top 10 times here in asecond.
But I you know certainly thatbrought an end to his racing
season, specifically as itrelates to college.
But I understand from speakingwith you yesterday that there
might be more racingopportunities.
Could you kind of share some ofthat info with us?
Maura (26:28):
Yes, I can.
So the way you qualify.
So this is a year of the Junior, not the Junior Olympics.
Goodness, these guys are alladults.
Now the Olympic trials and inthe Olympics in Paris.
So who doesn't want to go tothe Olympics?
Right, but just like qualifyingto the NCAA Division I
Nationals has a process.
You have to go to the olympics,right, but just like qualifying
to the NCaa division onenationals has a process you have
(26:48):
to go through.
So does the Olympic trials.
So to get to the Olympic trials, you have to have the mark, you
have to have the time, but thenyou also have to have it within
a certain standard.
So you have four Mids thatcompeted at nationals.
But Zaz Guillaume also, whojust missed going to nationals,
(27:09):
but he's missed, met thestandards.
So what are the standards?
There's two qualifying marks.
One is called the minimum.
You hit that minimum, you'remaking olympic trials.
It doesn't matter how manyqualified minimum you make, it's
darn fast.
It's like most of yourprofessional athletes, the ones
that are out of college, thoseare the ones that are making the
(27:30):
minimums, but there are a fewcollegiate athletes that have.
But then they have this othermark, which is our happy place
and that's called the qualifyingstandards, and all four of the
guys who are nationals plus Zazhave met the qualifying standard
.
But this is how it works.
Right, in the men's runningraces they only take 35 athletes
(27:53):
In the throwing events.
So for Josh and Brayden only 24make.
Karl (27:59):
Olympic trials Okay.
Maura (28:01):
So now what you're doing is you're sitting on a bubble
and it's that waiting game,right?
So to get to the Olympic trials, to ideally extend your season,
you have to be in the top 35 ortop 24.
So they have, they're in theprocess of doing the application
.
The deadline for anybody in theunited states, you know, got to
(28:22):
be a citizen god, you know,I'll check all the boxes is june
11th.
Then you have this thing calleddeclare.
You look at all the people thathave entered your race.
Maybe you're, you're like oneof those phenoms.
You've qualified in two orthree events, but do you think
you can do that at the Olympiclevel?
Maybe you only want to do oneor only want to do two.
So you have to declare thatdeclaration date closes on June
(28:44):
13th.
Karl (28:45):
Wow, okay.
Maura (28:45):
Olympic trials are Friday .
They start Friday, June 21st.
Karl (28:49):
Okay.
Maura (28:50):
So between the 13th and the 21st the United States will
make that decision.
The Olympic Committee, whothey're going to take in those
numbers?
They got the inside skinny andall that.
Karl (29:05):
So our guys, in the meantime, they have to keep
training.
Maura (29:08):
So Zaz and Nathan didn't graduate.
The other three guys aregraduating.
Zaz and Nathan they still.
The other three guys aregraduating.
Karl (29:11):
Right.
Maura (29:12):
Zaz and Nathan.
They still have the militaryduties.
They still have the othertraining they have to do Right
right.
Nathan is a football player AllNCAA Division I football
players.
They have to take summer schoolat the school, so he's got to
do that.
So that's kind of where he's at.
But how exciting would that beto have Josh Braden, zaz, ramir,
nathan all represent the NavalAcademy at the Olympic Trials.
Karl (29:35):
That would be something.
Maura (29:36):
That would be just a happy place, happy place.
Karl (29:38):
For sure.
Okay, so recognizing thatthat's still a possibility, I
wanted to get your take on howthe year finished versus what
both your expectations were andNathan's expectations were at
the beginning of the outdoorseason.
Okay, because I'm looking athis track record here no pun
intended, but just a stellaryear.
(30:01):
I mean 200, 400 meter championagainst army, 200, 400 meter
champion in the Patriot Leaguechampionships, both indoor and
outdoor.
So was that something that hesaw coming or you saw coming, or
?
I mean, certainly you alwayswant to perform your best, but
here we've got a young man who'sjust finishing his second year
at a pretty demandinginstitution and his name is
(30:22):
already scattered all over therecord books.
What was Nathan's take on howtrack season went and what was
yours?
Maura (30:28):
I don't know an athlete out there that doesn't want to
be the best they can be.
Karl (30:30):
Certainly.
Maura (30:31):
And everyone wants to cross that finish line in first.
There is some really goodtalent both on the Academy that
go against Nathan.
There are a couple of reallygood 400 meter runners right
there on the Academy team thatpush him, push him hard.
And you don't know.
You don't know from week toweek, meet to meet, which one's
going to cross that finish linefirst.
(30:51):
you don't know, from week toweek meet to meet which one's
going to cross that finish linefirst.
They're that good, they're thatclose together.
So, yeah, he absolutely wouldlove to be first and everything.
He wanted to go to finals thisyear at nationals.
But he made it to nationalslast year, he just made it to
finals at the East regional.
This year he went a stepfurther and he made it to
nationals.
So let's's, you know, the goalis okay.
I've been here, done it, seenit.
(31:11):
Now next year, let's see if hecan be on the podium, can he?
Can he make it happen next yearat nationals?
right right but yeah, um, whatdid we think at the beginning of
the outdoor?
You know anything can happen.
You don't know.
You don't know who the newrecruits are, the other schools
when you start up, you don'tknow who's going to get injured,
what, what's going to happen.
There's so many variables ontrack.
(31:33):
I'm grateful he's not hurt.
I'm grateful that he's endingthe season well and I look
forward to see what his what doyou call him second class Next
year at the Naval Academy.
How that's going to work.
Karl (31:45):
Now we've been talking about the 400 meters and you
mentioned there's other athleteswho really push him in practice
.
Yes, I was looking specificallyat the group of athletes that
Nathan ran his 4x400 meterrelays with At the NCAA East
Region Qualifier.
He ran the 4x400 with PeteDeJong, Jay Evans and then Zaz,
who you just mentioned before,and they posted the best time in
(32:07):
program history for the 4x400with a time of 3.04.59.
That was actually about twoseconds better than the previous
best time that this same groupset about a year ago.
So he's got all those guyscoming back with him.
Maura (32:18):
There's another one.
Karl (32:19):
Go ahead.
Maura (32:20):
David Walker is an incoming plebe this last year
and he is solid.
He has a very good chance inthe 400 hurdles and the open 400
, and he ran a couple differenttimes on the 4x4 also.
So there are five that aregoing to be back next year.
Karl (32:34):
So there's another opportunity for qualifying right
, I mean as a relay team 100%.
Maura (32:40):
So that's a really good point you brought up, because
actually their 4x4 at the EastRegional Meet took 14.
Remember, only 12 go toNationals.
However, that same time, hadthey ran it on the West Regional
Meet, they would have beatthree or four teams and they
would have gone to nationals.
Karl (32:58):
Oh man Wow.
Maura (32:59):
You know, it just is.
There were some solid teams onthe East regional relays that
they were going up against.
Karl (33:07):
Yeah, that's crazy how things work out sometimes.
So let's go ahead and stickwith this theme of best times
for a minute Right now.
If I look at the Navy records,the top 10 Navy records, it
looks like Nathan has four ofthe top 10 200-meter times
outdoors.
And then he's got right now thesecond and third fastest times
(33:27):
in the 400, both of which wereset.
Well, one of them was just theother day and the other one was
set, I believe, at regionals.
But the thing that caught myeye, maura, was when I looked at
the 100 meter time outdoors.
I'm going wait what Nathan'sname was at the top of the list
there.
When did that happen?
And you know how did it evencome to the fact that he ran
(33:49):
that?
I've I've always known him as aMichael Johnson type of
sprinter 200 and 400, 400 meterrelay.
You know that sort of thing.
Maura (33:57):
He actually doesn't get the chance to run a hundred very
often.
Um, there's not a limit in thenumber of events you can compete
in, but there's wisdom and thecoach, and especially if there's
trials and finals, you can'tput a kid in too many excuse me,
they're not kids, them and thecoach.
And especially if there'strials and finals, you can't put
a kid in too many?
Excuse me, they're not kids.
I'm in into too many events butin my background, looking at
(34:18):
what he's done, he used to be800 meter runner so.
I asked him even at nationals wegot on the 800 again.
So he does like the shorterraces.
He enjoys the 100 he's cook isamazing.
Coach Cook has really worked onhis turnover and the speed and
yeah, no, I, I, you know, I, Ilike to see him succeed.
(34:38):
A hundred meter school record,that wasn't something I was even
thinking about Cause, like yousaid, I saw more as a two, four
and even an eight guy.
So it is really cool that he wasable to drop that in.
Wow, wow, okay, so I think thatcovers Wow, wow, okay.
Karl (34:52):
So I think that covers everything, mara.
Is there anything that Ihaven't asked, that you want to
get out there, just in terms ofthe experience you had, and
everything.
Maura (34:59):
I just want to thank all the parents, because the your
Mid is my Mid is alive and realin the world of track and field.
With any sport, with anyactivity that happens at the
academy, we can't get everywhereand I think that's the hardest
thing for us as parental units.
We were used to watching ourkids and going to their stuff,
and we can't Even at the EastRegional.
(35:21):
Two of the kids that werecompeting had younger siblings
graduating from high school.
Their parents had to choose DoI go to my other child's high
school graduation or do I go tothe East regional meet, where my
kid might be done with theseason and not even advanced to
the next round?
You just can't be everywhereand I I can't thank the parents
(35:42):
enough.
You know, grab Nathan up, takehim out to grab a bite to eat or
get a smoothie or whatever itis.
You know it's.
This is a really greatcommunity.
It is not just about my.
My child is about everyone'schild and these kids they're
better for it.
And the coaching staff, fromthe personal trainers, the
(36:03):
athletic trainers I guess Ishould call them correctly the
coaches they're committed, theycare and, as you know, nathan
basically ran out of his shoesat the end of east regional.
His shoes were tearing.
He needed a new pair of shoes.
I was like I don't know if Ieven have time to order them and
get them here, and devon thehurdle coach goes.
I got a pair and spotted nathana pair of shoes.
(36:25):
He didn't have to do that buthe did, and so it's just that
total care of each other.
It's really awesome.
Karl (36:33):
Yeah, yeah.
And, by the way, I did seeDevin Allen interviewed right
before Premier ran and he kindof, you know, he gave him a nice
shout out to both Premier andNathan before their races, so
that was cool that he sharedthat.
Maura (36:46):
That is neat.
I hadn't seen that interview.
That's cool.
Karl (36:48):
Yeah, so anyway, maura, that about does it for us.
Listen again, I want to thankyou so much for turning this
around so quickly.
We spoke less than 24 hours ago.
I'm just glad we were able tobring everything together.
Again, congratulations to youand your son and to the entire
track and field team, thecoaches and the staff, on a
fantastic year, and I'm lookingforward to seeing Nathan and his
(37:10):
teammates compete again nextyear.
Maura (37:12):
Thank you, yeah, it's.
It's going to be exciting tosee what the next year holds.
Let's see what junior I meanthe Olympic trials holds.
Karl (37:18):
Yeah, for sure.
Maura (37:19):
It would be awesome to see these five make it.
Karl (37:21):
Yep, yep.
All right, maura, you take carenow.
Maura (37:23):
Thank you, take care.
Bye-bye.
Karl (37:26):
Okay Coming up next, we've got our question of the day and
our last Mid W mid-watchsegment of the sports season, so
(37:48):
stay close.
Before I get into the questionof the day, I did want to make
sure I wrapped up the discussionon the track team and the four
guys who competed at thenational championships.
Both the men and the women didrepeat as Patriot League
champions and then individually,nathan Kent won the 200 and 400
meter titles, Brahmir Vik wasthe champion in the 110 meter
hurdles, Braden Presser tookfirst in the javelin and Josh
(38:12):
Boamah beat everyone to win thediscus, hammer throw and shot
put.
And at nationals Boamah pickedup an All-American honorable
mention in both the shot put andthe hammer throw, while Kent,
Vick and Presser took secondteam All-America honors in their
respective events.
So it was a great way for theseathletes to finish out the year
.
Now on to our question of theday, but first let's go back and
check the responses to the lastone, which was from our
(38:33):
conversation with Navy baseballhitting coach Jeff Kane.
The question was how many timeshas the Navy baseball team won
the Patriot League Championshipssince joining in 1991?
Is it A, 2, b 3, c, 5, or D 6?
Okay, so half of you whoresponded went with C five
titles and the rest were splitevenly at 25% between A and B,
(38:54):
which was two and threechampionships respectively.
Nobody wound up choosing D, andit turns out that D six titles
is actually the correct answer.
The mids won their firstPatriot League crown in 1994,
and then they followed that upwith back-to-back championships
in 1998 and 99.
Since then, they've won threemore times in 2002, 2011, and
2016.
(39:15):
So we're looking at what willbe nine years since their last
title when next season starts,and you know that ending that
streak is going to be a primarygoal from day one.
All right, now let's get to thisweek's question.
Here we go.
Braden Presser was just namedan NCAA All-American in outdoor
track and field in the Javelinfor the third straight year.
When was the last time someonefrom the men's track team earned
this distinction of qualifyingas an All-American for three
(39:36):
consecutive seasons?
In his event, was it A 1947, b1976, c 1983, or D 2012?
Go ahead and spend some time onthat and let me know what you
think.
And, by the way, this would bea great opportunity to respond
by sending us a text message,especially if you don't happen
to be a member of our NavySports Nation Facebook group.
(39:57):
So give that a try by going tothe show notes and clicking on
the link, and then you can justtype in your answer into the
text box and hit send.
If you want to include yourname and where you're from, I'll
be happy to give you a shoutout on our next show and, of
course, I'll also post thequestion of the day on our group
Facebook page.
Okay, now let's wrap things upwith our last mid-watch segment,
and I will tell you that bothathletes that we're tracking
(40:17):
ended up having terrific seasons.
First we'll go ahead and take alook at Brock Murtha from the
Navy baseball team.
He led the mids in two keycategories with a 345 batting
average and an OPS of 81,.
His slugging and on-basepercentages were a team best.
Also, in one of his best gamesof the year against Lehigh,
murtha went three for three witha home run and a double, while
knocking in six runs.
The Mids ended up winning thatgame 12 to 2.
(40:40):
Murtha also did a terrific jobfielding his position at second
base.
He posted a fielding average of985, which was good for second
on the team.
He just finished his sophomoreyear, so Murtha's got a couple
more seasons to have a reallybig impact on the Navy program
and with the talent he's gotaround him, I think it's pretty
reasonable to expect that theteam will be challenging Army
again for the Patriot Leaguetitle next season.
(41:01):
Now let's check in with EmilyMessinese from the women's
lacrosse team.
She finished out the year asthe leader in goals, with 68,
and she tacked on 18 assists,which also earned her the top
spot in points with 86.
Besides that, messonese wassecond on the team in draw
controls with 64.
She had an excellent gameagainst Loyola in the Patriot
League Championship game,scoring five goals on just eight
(41:24):
shots, and when you look at howher game has developed over the
last two seasons, I get thesense that her final year at
Navy could be a memorable one.
And, by the way, I did want tomention one more thing before
signing off Regarding the talenton this team.
Navy's top seven goal scorersin 2024 were responsible for 87%
of the offense, which is prettyincredible.
They produced 261 of the 300goals that the Mids had, and
every single one of thoseplayers is coming back next year
(41:48):
.
That's going to do it for thisedition of Navy Sports Central.
Thank you all so much forjoining us Now.
If you like what you've heard,please be sure to hit that
follow button wherever you getyour podcasts, and remember to
get the word to all the otherNavy fans out there.
Once again, I'd like to thankMaura Kent for joining me today.
It was so great to have herback to share her perspective on
the NCAA championships, andcongratulations to her son,
(42:13):
nathan, for his fantastic seasonon the track.
Our question of the daycontinues to be a show favorite.
You can get in on that byjoining the Navy Sports Nation
group Facebook page and givingyour answer to this week's
question.
You can also respond by sendingus a text.
All you need to do is click onthe link in the show notes.
And just a quick reminder theviews expressed on Navy Sports
Central are my own and do notreflect those of the US Naval
Academy or Navy Athletics.
By the way, the music used inNavy Sports Central comes to you
(42:35):
courtesy of Audio Jungle.
This is a great site forpurchasing the rights to use the
music from thousands of artistsaround the world, and those
featured in the podcast will becredited in our show notes.
Talk to you soon, everybody.
Until next time.
This is Karl Darden Go NavyBeat Army.
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