April 16, 2012

ANNAPOLIS, Md. - The Navy women's outdoor track and field team (16-0) is preparing for a busy week that will see the team compete in three meets in three different states over five days. Navy will begin with the McDaniel Twilight Meet on Tuesday in Westminster, Md., then Navy will send two standout distance runners to the Mt. SAC Relays in Walnut, Calif. on Thursday and the full team will be back together for Princeton's Larry Ellis Invitational on Friday and Saturday.

This will be Navy's second straight year competing at the mid-week McDaniel Twilight Meet. Last season, Navy won five of the six events that it competed in to top a seven-team field. Three freshman throwers won events at McDaniel last season, as Teronda Brown won the shot put, Lauren Allam won the discus and Alix Membreno took first place in the javelin.

Senior Jess Palacio and junior Brigid Byrne will represent Navy at the 54th annual Mt. SAC Relays, which consistently brings together the nation's top track and field competitors. Palacio will compete in the 1,500m run at 5:00 PM (ET) and Byrne will run in the 10,000m run at 8:30 PM (ET). Live results will be available on navysports.com(.)

Palacio is the two-time defending Patriot League 1,500m champion and Byrne placed second in the 10k at last year's outdoor league meet. Both can expect to face their strongest competition of the outdoor season to date on Thursday.

Palacio will have eight other runners in her heat that have clocked between a 4:21 and a 4:25 in the 1,500m this season and are subsequently ranked in the nation's top-85. Palacio's personal record is a 4:22.58 and her current season-best time is a 4:27.24. Palacio was a 2012 indoor All-American in the mile run.

Princeton's Larry Ellis Invitational will begin Friday night with the distance races and the rest of the meet's events will be contested on Saturday. Palacio broke Navy's 27-year-old school 800m record at last year's Larry Ellis meet and Amanda Phelps set a PR to place second in the hammer. Live results of the Larry Ellis meet will be available on navysports.com(.)

Navy currently has three athletes in a position to earn a bid to the NCAA's East Regional with a top-48 ranking. Junior Kristin Smith is ranked 23rd in the region in the high jump (5-8¾, 1.75m), Allam is 42nd in the discus (154-10, 47.20m) and Phelps is 40th in the hammer throw (181-2, 55.21m).

The Mids were off last week after defeating Army in the annual Outdoor Star Meet the previous weekend, 116-87. It marked the fourth straight outdoor N-Star for Navy and the Class of 2012 wrapped up its careers with a perfect 8-0 mark against their rivals in indoor and outdoor track and field.

Navy will compete in the Penn Relays next week.