The NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships: One Mid's Experience

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.

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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)

Transcript

Karl: 0:14

Hi everybody, my name is Karl Darden and I'd like to welcome and thank all of you for joining us today on Navy Sports Central. I'm your host and this is the official podcast of the Navy Sports Nation, where we take a deeper dive into Navy sports. This is the official podcast of the Navy Sports Nation where we take a deeper dive into Navy sports. With the conclusion of the NCAA Track and Field Championships, the Navy Athletics 2024 season is now over the Mids, finished up another terrific year, and we will recap some of those accomplishments in our sports update. In our deep dive segment, we actually have a returning guest who was nice enough to join us on some very short notice to give us her perspective on the outdoor track season and what it was like to be at the Division I Championships in Eugene, Oregon. I've got all that, plus our question of the day and mid-watch segment coming right up, so stay with us. All right, so glad. You could all join us today on Navy Sports Central, whether this is your first visit or you are a regular listener. Thanks for taking the time. Before we get into our sports update, I do have a couple of things to share with you. First of all, I absolutely got clobbered with work-related stuff last month, which pushed the podcast to the back burner for a while, so my apologies for that. That's pretty much all finished now, and even though it's pretty quiet in the yard during the summer when it comes to Navy sports, I've got some thoughts for at least two or three episodes before things crank back up in a couple of months. I also want to let you know about a new feature I think you'll really like. This podcast is hosted by a company called Buzzsprout, and they're always looking for ways to help us get and stay connected to our audience, and last month they came up with something I think is pretty cool. From now on, you'll be able to send 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 send us a text message. All you have to do is click on it and then type in your message. It and then type in your message. You will see a seven-digit number in the text box as well, and you're going to want to leave that in place, because that's what links the text message to my podcast. Using this feature will allow you to answer the question of the day even before the show is over. In fact, I'd like to invite you to respond to this week's question using this link, and I'll be sure to give you a shout out on the next show as well. I plan to start working on as soon as I release this one. Okay, that does it for all the admin stuff.

Karl: 2:27

Let's go ahead and get into a quick sports update. I'm basically going to recap how most of the teams finished out the spring season, so let's start with lacrosse. The men got to the semifinals of the Patriot League tournament. They beat Loyola in the quarterfinals 12-10, but couldn't get past Lehigh in the semis. The Mountain Hawks came out on top 12-8 in that one, and then they wound up beating Boston University to qualify for the tournament.

Karl: 2:48

Now for the season. The Mids finished with a 9-7 record, and they were also 5-3 in conference play. The women got all the way to the Patriot League Championship game against Loyola, and that's a team that hasn't lost a conference game in like five years. In fact, that was to Navy in 2019. This game was back and forth the whole way. Neither team led by more than two goals. Emily Messinese got Navy even at 11 apiece, with just over two minutes left in regulation, and then the game went into overtime. Less than 30 seconds later it was all over, with the Greyhounds scoring following a Navy penalty. It was a tough way to close out the season, but this Navy team has a boatload of talent coming back next year and Loyola looked beatable on more than one occasion this season. So we'll see if the Mids can't turn the tables on them in 2025. In the meantime, they can be pretty proud of their 15-4 record. They were also 8-1 in league play, which included a Star Series clinching win over Army in April.

Karl: 3:38

Moving on to baseball, the Mids finished up a solid season under first-year coach Chuck Ristano. They were 15-10 in Patriot League play and got to the championship game, but weren't able to dethrone Army, which took the best-of-three series to win the title for the sixth straight year. That had to sting more than a little, because the Mids also felt short in a three-game series against the Black Knights a month earlier and could not claim the final star of the sports season. But overall, I'd have to say it was a pretty decent first year for Coach Ristano and I'm sure he's looking forward to getting that team to the next level. The Navy men's rugby team earned a trip back to the national championship against St Mary's out of California. This time the Mids could not climb out of an early hole they dug for themselves and they fell just 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 be right in the thick of things again next spring.

Karl: 4:31

Both the men's and women's tennis teams made it to the Patriot League Championship match this year. The men battled hard against Boston University and the Terriers, who were the number one seed, eventually came out on top. The Mids had won the previous five Patriot League titles. The second-seeded Navy women also took on BU, and here Katie Lee fought off a couple of championship points in the third set tiebreaker and finally won it 8-6 to give the Mids their first ever Patriot League title. The team finished 24-7 overall and 4-1 in conference play, including a big win over Army.

Karl: 5:01

And there is one last thing I wanted to add. Obviously, swimming and diving is a winter sport, but the USA Swimming Olympic Trials are set to start this weekend and the mids had six swimmers qualify. They are Matt Murphy, Juan Mora and Michael Phillips in a 200-meter breaststroke, Jonah Harm and Patrick Colwell in a 100-meter butterfly and Ben Irwin in the 100-meter and 200-meter backstroke. That's got to be an absolute thrill for those athletes. Murphy, colwell and Harm just graduated, so how cool would that be for them to wrap up their Navy careers with a personal best time at the US Olympic trials. All right, the last sports update of the season is in the books, and coming up next we have our deep dive segment, where our guest will share some of her perspective while watching four outstanding Navy athletes compete at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships. So please stick around.

Karl: 6:09

You know, one of the things I enjoy the most about doing this podcast is having the occasional opportunity to talk to some of the parents of Navy athletes, and last summer I had the pleasure of getting to know Mara Kent. She is the mother of Nathan Kent, 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 episode last August and we had a great conversation that covered a range of topics, including how she saw her role when it came to raising an elite athlete who is pretty much training or competing for 10 or 11 months out of the year. Last month, nathan, who just finished his sophomore year, qualified for the NCAA track and field 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, and Josh Boma, who qualified in both the hammer throw and the shot put. All three of them just graduated with the class of 2024.

Karl: 6:56

Anyway, Maura was in Eugene, Oregon, to take it all in and she joins us here today to share her experience. All right, Maura. Thanks for joining me today on Navy Sports Central, especially on such short notice. I know we were in communication yesterday to see if we can set this up, so thank you for making the time.

Maura: 7:10

Oh, absolutely. It's always an honor to recognize these athletes and what they've done. Thank you for this chance.

Karl: 7:16

Yeah, no problem. First of all, I wanted to get your thoughts on how Nathan felt going into the outdoor season. I know he came off of indoors looking really strong. He was the Patriot League champion in both the 200 and the 400. So he had to be feeling pretty good from a confidence standpoint, right.

Maura: 7:32

Yeah, thank you for your kind words about how he did it indoors. Always fun that you actually track the athletes and they're out there on our fans and family pages. Thank you for that, but time stream rolls around. You know Nathan's already competed for the Naval Academy in the fall football team. He's done winter indoor track. So heading into spring outdoor track season is a lot but he loves it.

Maura: 7:55

Why? It's because the mids on both teams are incredible. His coaching staff for both football and track. They work together to ensure he isn't more out tore up exhausted by the end of each season. He often is rested every other weekend during the winter and spring track seasons. That allows him to stay fresh and excited. So yes, heading into the spring outdoor track season, he was ready to see how far he and his teammates could advance the season. He felt good about it.

Karl: 8:21

All right. Well, that's good to hear and, by the way, for those of you who are not familiar, Maura is the admin on the Navy Track and Field fans Facebook page and I'm part of that group, so she and her counterparts do a great job keeping everybody up to date on what's going on with Navy Track and Field. So, Maura, thank you for doing that. Okay, so in one of your posts on that page, you did a nice job on breaking down what it takes to qualify for the NCAA championships in whatever event. It is Okay. So I was wondering if you could kind of share some of that information as it relates to Nathan's events.

Maura: 8:56

Yeah, sure. So actually there were four athletes that went to nationals, so Nathan and his three teammates. They had to qualify to nationals and they went through similar rounds. It didn't matter if you're a field or a running event, it was similar. So both Nathan in the 400 and Brahmir Vick in the 110 hurdles, they went through as runners, while Braden Presser and Javelin and Josh Boamah shot, put and hammer, they went through as field events. So how does it work? First, the athletes have to attain a minimum qualifying marker time. That's just to get to the East Regional NCAA D1 Outdoor Track and Field Championships.

Maura: 9:32

This is held every year at the same time as the academy's graduation and commission. To choose right, every year there's someone. Do I try to qualify for the NCAA D1 Nationals or do I take commission with all my mids, my buddies, my pals that I've hung out with the last four years? Two seniors on the track and field team. They opted to take the pass and they 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 and circumstance. It was awesome. But there were other seniors. They chose to compete to try and earn a spot at nationals.

Maura: 10:10

For many of the men field event seniors their competitions were held on Wednesday, so they didn't have the problem that women have. Men competed Wednesday and Friday. Women were Thursday and Saturday. So for a woman to go to finals, if she was a runner she didn't have a chance to go to commissioning. But the men in the field events, they could compete on Wednesday and move forward to graduation. Unless you were a runner For Bermuda and also Sam Keeney in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, they chose to skip the traditional commissioning ceremony. But I learned something this year. It's pretty cool, usna, they hold a delayed graduation ceremony for athletes and others that have extenuating circumstances. So Vermeer and Sam, after they'd finished competing at the East Regional Qualifier meet, they were able to come back to Naval Academy. They had an intimate graduation ceremony that only include two other meds, so four. They had all the same key people, all the same wonderful speeches, but only four of them.

Maura: 11:15

So it was really neat to look at the pictures and see the experience and you got to invite 50 people per graduate and they all got to sit up close and personal. They're all the same. I mean it was really actually different. I'm kind of thinking kind of a neat, cool graduation experience right, right, but for those stable academy track and field athletes that want to continue their season.

Maura: 11:35

Those athletes had to run or throw a mark that was in the top 48. So they went to the east regional. They had to. To get there they had to have the best mark of running shot. You know, javelin, whatever you had to have the 41 to 48 best marks. West regional they do the same thing. So you have the countries kind of divided. So the east region, the west region, and they hold their meets on the same day. They have the same platform of four days for qualifying from that meet to advance to nationals who have to be top 12.

Maura: 12:08

So only the top 12 on the east and the top 12 from the west make it to nationals per event and when you really step back and think about it's like holy cow. That's a lot of kids that didn't make it, that are quite amazing athletes. And one of the throws coaches on the track team at Naval Academy in the stands yesterday he was sharing he did the math and he said only half of 1% of all collegiate D1 track and field athletes actually make it to 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 all the 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 track athlete can make. It 24, 24 make it to nationals for event. So once they're in Eugene, oregon, the format of men is the same as it was in the East Regional Men go Wednesday and Friday and women go Thursday and Saturday.

Maura: 13:06

So Brahmir and Nathan they had, because they're track athletes, they had a two-day competition format. So on day one all 24 athletes compete in that event and for a running event and let's just use those guys because there was more sprinting hurdle events three heats, eight athletes per event, only top two finishers and then from each of the three heats and then the top three fastest times make it to nationals. For Josh and Brayden, because they were in field events, they take all 24, split them into two flights, they each get three attempts and then the nine athletes that have the best nine throws they go to immediately into finals. So where for the field event guys, they were all done on Wednesday. Had premier and Nathan advanced to 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 of knowledge 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 a little bit more of that later. When it comes to how Nathan ran throughout the year, but I was wondering if you could share with us. When was it, you know, recognizing that he had pretty solid times throughout the season? When was it that you realized, ok, well, he's a deadlock for at least getting to regionals because 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 every week you don't know where someone's competing, you don't know who's going to hit that PR, that there's just so much talent and it's all the East Coast colleges and you don't even see them. You don't know them. So you kind of track, you know top records, but it's like what's the right, best website to see it.

Maura: 15:05

So, until they put that list out. So, like for the East Regional D1 Division One Outdoor Track and Field Championships, that they were held in Kentucky. But until that list came out you really didn't know. You just had to wait. So, like for Navy, they sent 16 men and two women to East Regional. Only four athletes, about five events, 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 Navy has 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 your child's going to make it.

Karl: 15:52

Right, you know, what it would be curious to see and there's probably someplace I can look this up is when you look at the number of people that move on. You said top 12 would move on to nationals right from the regionals. Like, like, move on, you said top 12 would move on to nationals right From the regionals. I'd be interested in finding out the difference in time from that 12th person to the 13th person, because that would speak to the level of talent that is obviously present, right? I mean, can you imagine, I mean just this, just hundreds of a second maybe, separating 12 from 13.

Maura: 16:22

Yeah, I was going to say literally. There were times when it was hundreds of a second. It was so close Even at nationals to go from the semifinals to finals, like in Nathan's 400,. The top three were out there, but the next four to eight they were almost like right across from each other.

Karl: 16:39

Yeah.

Maura: 16:40

It was like Thank goodness for a photo. Finish, you can go back and look at the video.

Karl: 16:45

That's right. Right, and yeah, I wanted to get to that in a little bit, but just out of curiosity, how many times 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 per sport. Kind of spread it out. This year I was able to get to only two of his meets before nationals. Happy to get to only two of his meets before nationals, I'm happy to get them. I don't live in the state. I don't even live near the state, so it makes it challenging, Darn it. They don't have track and football games down in Alabama, Although we do have a football game this coming fall in Alabama. I'm excited.

Karl: 17:20

That's right. So let me ask you this whether you are watching Nathan run in person or on TV, like say on ESPN Plus or something like that, as a former track athlete yourself, what goes through your mind when you watch him race? Just to kind of preface this a little bit, you know, my son was not a track guy, he was a basketball guy. But when I watched him play I would often try to put myself in his mind, wondering if he were actually seeing the same thing as he was bringing the ball up the court and the play was developing in front of him, or if he's taking free throws. I'm right there going through the routine with him in my head, you know. So when you are watching Nathan run, what sort of things are kind of going through your mind? Are you just there cheering, or are you just kind of thinking, okay, what's his strategy, or how'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 be injured. I want to perform the best he can 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 great athlete. It's his, you know, it's his relationship with the lord, but he, you know, he's got to give god 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 am learning, as a parent, to ask questions. You know, as we go into the race, do you want to talk, do you want space? Can I ask questions? Do I wait till later? And so I've learned to ask those questions up front so I don't get in the way. So you know, as an athlete, he doesn't get to hang out with mom before he races.

Maura: 18:41

I don't usually see him until after the last event is done at a track meet, and then he can come up in the stands. So it's just you know, just God. Give it to God, wishing the best 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 we do that, I did want to give you all a couple of ways to stay up to date on Navy sports. The first is to join the Navy Sports Nation group Facebook page. I've got a link to that in the show notes. Just click on it, answer a couple of questions and you'll be good to go. The second way takes even less time.

Karl: 19:12

Just hit the follow button on whichever platform you're listening to this podcast right now. It can be Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iheartradio, it doesn't matter. Once you do that, every episode will be downloaded to your directory when it's released and you can listen to it whenever you're ready. So please consider becoming a member of our group and you can actually tap that follow button right now to show your support for the podcast. I'm looking forward to having you join us. We'll be right back. Welcome back to Navy Sports Central. Karl Darden here with you, and today we're joined by Maura Kent, whose son, nathan, recently competed in the 400 meters at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships no-transcript everyone.

Maura: 20:28

Typically when you come into a track meet, you might have a favorite Maybe I like the hammer, or I like the long jump, or I was a hurdle person when I was younger but they clap for everyone. That's what I love about track and 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've experienced on some of my kids in some other team sports where you've got negativity or bullying or just you're just like ick.

Maura: 20:53

You don't get that with track. People are awesome and dynamite and it's just. It's really a nice experience there 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 it on the weekends, when everything is kind of actually starting on Friday, when everything's kind of coming together in all the finals races and stuff like that. It's really really exciting to watch. And again, a lot of it just has to do with the location because of how famous it is and that sort of thing. And I know you had mentioned earlier that you don't get a chance to see Nathan a lot before a meet, obviously, but do you have a sense for what his pre-race routine is in terms of how he gets ready, how he prepares, music he listens to? I'm always kind of curious about that sort of thing, so I did not know if he shared that with 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 they get off the plane, if there's time that evening, when they get to their designated site, they try and do a shakeout workout. My observation of listening to the athletes and talking with them they do that's what they call a shakeout and they get out and they you know Coach Cook has trained them all they know what they need to do and they get their stride in and they do it. At this stage in the game, you got it or you don't. Nothing's going to change making you faster. You got it or you don't. So you have your routine, you go through it. Nathan doesn't always wear a headset. He has some music he does enjoy hearing, but he's just in. They're in their head.

Karl: 22:28

Right, preparing and thinking for it. Okay, so let's get to the race itself. I remember tuning it in and just 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 know running on those one, those first two inside lanes, isn't optimal. But one advantage is okay I can see basically everybody in front of me here, so you know that's something anyway. So, uh, after the, the starters gun went off and the race started to develop.

Karl: 23:02

Based on what you know about how he runs, did everything kind of play out the way you thought?

Karl: 23:08

I'm really kind of curious to get your take because for my money. And again, I just wanted to say upfront that I'm not an expert in track and field, but I've been following it a long time as a fan and certainly the quarter is one of my favorite races. And one of the things I noticed was that that last straightaway was that that last straightaway he stayed strong all the way through to the finish. And I think that when I saw that time come across and we'll talk about it in a second, it's 45.85, I said okay, fourth place in the heat. Granted, there's two heats to go, but who knows, that might hold up, we'll see. But I just was pretty impressed with the fact that, a he was not intimidated by anybody that was 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 his chest in front of those other guys that were right there arriving with him.

Maura: 23:56

Yeah, to address your first question about lane one empty, you were right, it's a nine-lane track and for the semifinal sprint heats they left lane one empty and then they ran lane two through eight and, uh, lane two and lane not really the most difficult races lanes in the 400 either name lane nine. You're busting your butt, oh no. No one's gonna catch you, you have no idea how they're coming from right or lane two, it feels like you're chasing everybody.

Maura: 24:22

Right, right I mean in reality it's the same distance but it's still challenging. And as crazy as it is, the fastest 400-meter runner in the world is a sophomore at Georgia. He was in both of Nathan's qualifying heats at the East Regional and he was in Nathan's qualifying heat here in Eugene. So it's like darn, only two people people going. I got the world's fastest 400 meter in my heat. So, um, guidance from coach cook was gosh, fast as you can and hold on. So nathan did.

Maura: 24:57

He caught stagger on lane three almost at the top of the first curve right and then those two kind of battle back and forth. I was sitting so where the 100 meters start was, I was maybe 20 yards past that and so they come around that last curve into the straight away. They got 100 meters left to run. I'm thinking he's like 730 and he, like you, said they. He just powered through and he finished him fourth. He finished, like you said, 45.85, 1600ths of a second office PR. It ended up being the number three spot on the top 10. You know USNA has been tracking their track results for over 100 years, so it's number three. It was really close. Looking at it, he displaced Michael Green's time with 4599. 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 to look at those records and say these guys have been fast and jump far and throw far for a long time. So to make the record boards just like wow wow, yeah, yeah, it's.

Karl: 26:09

it was pretty amazing and I will talk about some of these other top 10 times here in a second. But I you know certainly that brought an end to his racing season, specifically as it relates to college. But I understand from speaking with you yesterday that there might be more racing opportunities. Could you kind of share some of that 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 all adults. Now the Olympic trials and in the Olympics in Paris. So who doesn't want to go to the Olympics? Right, but just like qualifying to the NCAA Division I Nationals has a process. You have to go to the olympics, right, but just like qualifying to the NCaa division one nationals has a process you have 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 then you also have to have it within a certain standard. So you have four Mids that competed at nationals. But Zaz Guillaume also, who just missed going to nationals, but he's missed, met the standards.

Maura: 27:11

So what are the standards? There's two qualifying marks. One is called the minimum. You hit that minimum, you're making olympic trials. It doesn't matter how many qualified minimum you make, it's darn fast. It's like most of your professional athletes, the ones that are out of college, those are the ones that are making the minimums, but there are a few collegiate athletes that have. But then they have this other mark, which is our happy place and that's called the qualifying standards, and all four of the guys who are nationals plus Zaz have met the qualifying standard. But this is how it works. Right, in the men's running races they only take 35 athletes In the throwing events. So for Josh and Brayden only 24 make.

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 or top 24. So they have, they're in the process of doing the application. The deadline for anybody in the united states, you know, got to be a citizen god, you know, I'll check all the boxes is june 11th. Then you have this thing called declare. You look at all the people that have entered your race. Maybe you're, you're like one of those phenoms. You've qualified in two or three events, but do you think you can do that at the Olympic level? Maybe you only want to do one or only want to do two. So you have to declare that declaration date closes on June 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, who they're going to take in those numbers? They got the inside skinny and all 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 are graduating. Zaz and Nathan they still. The other three guys are graduating.

Karl: 29:11

Right.

Maura: 29:12

Zaz and Nathan. They still have the military duties. They still have the other training they have to do Right right. Nathan is a football player All NCAA Division I football players. They have to take summer school at the school, so he's got to do that. So that's kind of where he's at. But how exciting would that be to have Josh Braden, zaz, ramir, nathan all represent the Naval Academy 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 that that's still a possibility, I wanted to get your take on how the year finished versus what both your expectations were and Nathan's expectations were at the beginning of the outdoor season. Okay, because I'm looking at his track record here no pun intended, but just a stellar year. I mean 200, 400 meter champion against army, 200, 400 meter champion in the Patriot League championships, both indoor and outdoor. So was that something that he saw coming or you saw coming, or? I mean, certainly you always want to perform your best, but here we've got a young man who's just finishing his second year at a pretty demanding institution and his name is already scattered all over the record books. What was Nathan's take on how track 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 good talent both on the Academy that go against Nathan. There are a couple of really good 400 meter runners right there on the Academy team that push him, push him hard. And you don't know. You don't know from week to week, meet to meet, which one's going to cross that finish line first.

Maura: 30:51

you don't know, from week to week meet to meet which one's going to cross that finish line first. They're that good, they're that close together. So, yeah, he absolutely would love to be first and everything. He wanted to go to finals this year at nationals. But he made it to nationals last year, he just made it to finals at the East regional. This year he went a step further and he made it to nationals. So let's's, you know, the goal is okay. I've been here, done it, seen it. Now next year, let's see if he can be on the podium, can he? Can he make it happen next year at nationals?

Maura: 31:17

right right but yeah, um, what did we think at the beginning of the outdoor? You know anything can happen. You don't know. You don't know who the new recruits are, the other schools when you start up, you don't know who's going to get injured, what, what's going to happen. There's so many variables on track. I'm grateful he's not hurt. I'm grateful that he's ending the season well and I look forward to see what his what do you 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 athletes who really push him in practice. Yes, I was looking specifically at the group of athletes that Nathan ran his 4x400 meter relays with At the NCAA East Region Qualifier. He ran the 4x400 with Pete DeJong, Jay Evans and then Zaz, who you just mentioned before, and they posted the best time in program history for the 4x400 with a time of 3.04.59. That was actually about two seconds better than the previous best time that this same group set about a year ago. So he's got all those guys coming 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 in the 400 hurdles and the open 400, and he ran a couple different times on the 4x4 also. So there are five that are going 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 East Regional Meet took 14. Remember, only 12 go to Nationals. However, that same time, had they ran it on the West Regional Meet, they would have beat three 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 on the 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 stick with 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 of the top 10 200-meter times outdoors. And then he's got right now the second and third fastest times in the 400, both of which were set. Well, one of them was just the other day and the other one was set, I believe, at regionals. But the thing that caught my eye, maura, was when I looked at the 100 meter time outdoors. I'm going wait what Nathan's name was at the top of the list there. When did that happen? And you know how did it even come to the fact that he ran that? I've I've always known him as a Michael Johnson type of sprinter 200 and 400, 400 meter relay. 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 the number of events you can compete in, but there's wisdom and the coach, and especially if there's trials and finals, you can't put a kid in too many excuse me, they're not kids, them and the coach. And especially if there's trials and finals, you can't put a kid in too many? Excuse me, they're not kids. I'm in into too many events but in my background, looking at what he's done, he used to be 800 meter runner so.

Maura: 34:20

I asked him even at nationals we got on the 800 again. So he does like the shorter races. He enjoys the 100 he's cook is amazing. Coach Cook has really worked on his turnover and the speed and yeah, no, I, I, you know, I, I like to see him succeed. A hundred meter school record, that wasn't something I was even thinking about Cause, like you said, I saw more as a two, four and even an eight guy.

Maura: 34:45

So it is really cool that he was able to drop that in. Wow, wow, okay, so I think that covers Wow, wow, okay.

Karl: 34:52

So I think that covers everything, mara. Is there anything that I haven't asked, that you want to get out there, just in terms of the 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 real in the world of track and field. With any sport, with any activity that happens at the academy, we can't get everywhere and I think that's the hardest thing for us as parental units. We were used to watching our kids and going to their stuff, and we can't Even at the East Regional. Two of the kids that were competing had younger siblings graduating from high school. Their parents had to choose Do I go to my other child's high school graduation or do I go to the East regional meet, where my kid might be done with the season and not even advanced to the next round? You just can't be everywhere and I I can't thank the parents enough.

Maura: 35:42

You know, grab Nathan up, take him out to grab a bite to eat or get a smoothie or whatever it is. You know it's. This is a really great community. It is not just about my. My child is about everyone's child and these kids they're better for it. And the coaching staff, from the personal trainers, the athletic trainers I guess I should call them correctly the coaches they're committed, they care and, as you know, nathan basically ran out of his shoes at the end of east regional. His shoes were tearing. He needed a new pair of shoes. I was like I don't know if I even have time to order them and get them here, and devon the hurdle coach goes. I got a pair and spotted nathan a pair of shoes. He didn't have to do that but he 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 see Devin Allen interviewed right before Premier ran and he kind of, you know, he gave him a nice shout out to both Premier and Nathan before their races, so that was cool that he shared that.

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 thank you so much for turning this around so quickly. We spoke less than 24 hours ago. I'm just glad we were able to bring everything together. Again, congratulations to you and your son and to the entire track and field team, the coaches and the staff, on a fantastic year, and I'm looking forward to seeing Nathan and his teammates compete again next year.

Maura: 37:12

Thank you, yeah, it's. It's going to be exciting to see what the next year holds. Let's see what junior I mean the 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 care now.

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-watch segment of the sports season, so stay close. Before I get into the question of the day, I did want to make sure I wrapped up the discussion on the track team and the four guys who competed at the national championships. Both the men and the women did repeat as Patriot League champions and then individually, nathan Kent won the 200 and 400 meter titles, Brahmir Vik was the champion in the 110 meter hurdles, Braden Presser took first in the javelin and Josh Boamah beat everyone to win the discus, hammer throw and shot put. And at nationals Boamah picked up an All-American honorable mention in both the shot put and the hammer throw, while Kent, Vick and Presser took second team All-America honors in their respective events. So it was a great way for these athletes to finish out the year.

Karl: 38:28

Now on to our question of the day, but first let's go back and check the responses to the last one, which was from our conversation with Navy baseball hitting coach Jeff Kane. The question was how many times has the Navy baseball team won the Patriot League Championships since joining in 1991? Is it A, 2, b 3, c, 5, or D 6? Okay, so half of you who responded went with C five titles and the rest were split evenly at 25% between A and B, which was two and three championships respectively. Nobody wound up choosing D, and it turns out that D six titles is actually the correct answer. The mids won their first Patriot League crown in 1994, and then they followed that up with back-to-back championships in 1998 and 99. Since then, they've won three more times in 2002, 2011, and 2016. So we're looking at what will be nine years since their last title when next season starts, and you know that ending that streak is going to be a primary goal from day one.

Karl: 39:23

All right, now let's get to this week's question. Here we go. Braden Presser was just named an NCAA All-American in outdoor track and 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 event, was it A 1947, b 1976, c 1983, or D 2012? Go ahead and spend some time on that and let me know what you think. And, by the way, this would be a great opportunity to respond by sending us a text message, especially if you don't happen to be a member of our Navy Sports Nation Facebook group. So give that a try by going to the show notes and clicking on the link, and then you can just type in your answer into the text box and hit send. If you want to include your name and where you're from, I'll be happy to give you a shout out on our next show and, of course, I'll also post the question of the day on our group Facebook page. Okay, now let's wrap things up with our last mid-watch segment, and I will tell you that both athletes that we're tracking ended up having terrific seasons.

Karl: 40:19

First we'll go ahead and take a look at Brock Murtha from the Navy baseball team. He led the mids in two key categories with a 345 batting average and an OPS of 81,. His slugging and on-base percentages were a team best. Also, in one of his best games of the year against Lehigh, murtha went three for three with a home run and a double, while knocking in six runs. The Mids ended up winning that game 12 to 2. Murtha also did a terrific job fielding his position at second base. He posted a fielding average of 985, which was good for second on the team. He just finished his sophomore year, so Murtha's got a couple more seasons to have a really big impact on the Navy program and with the talent he's got around him, I think it's pretty reasonable to expect that the team will be challenging Army again for the Patriot League title next season.

Karl: 41:01

Now let's check in with Emily Messinese from the women's lacrosse team. She finished out the year as the 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 was second on the team in draw controls with 64. She had an excellent game against Loyola in the Patriot League Championship game, scoring five goals on just eight shots, and when you look at how her game has developed over the last two seasons, I get the sense that her final year at Navy could be a memorable one. And, by the way, I did want to mention one more thing before signing off Regarding the talent on this team. Navy's top seven goal scorers in 2024 were responsible for 87% of the offense, which is pretty incredible. They produced 261 of the 300 goals that the Mids had, and every single one of those players is coming back next year. That's going to do it for this edition of Navy Sports Central.

Karl: 41:52

Thank you all so much for joining us Now. If you like what you've heard, please be sure to hit that follow button wherever you get your podcasts, and remember to get the word to all the other Navy fans out there. Once again, I'd like to thank Maura Kent for joining me today. It was so great to have her back to share her perspective on the NCAA championships, and congratulations to her son, nathan, for his fantastic season on the track.

Karl: 42:14

Our question of the day continues to be a show favorite. You can get in on that by joining the Navy Sports Nation group Facebook page and giving your answer to this week's question. You can also respond by sending us a text. All you need to do is click on the link in the show notes. And just a quick reminder the views expressed on Navy Sports Central are my own and do not reflect those of the US Naval Academy or Navy Athletics. By the way, the music used in Navy Sports Central comes to you courtesy of Audio Jungle. This is a great site for purchasing the rights to use the music from thousands of artists around the world, and those featured in the podcast will be credited in our show notes. Talk to you soon, everybody. Until next time. This is Karl Darden Go Navy Beat Army.