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Feb. 13, 2007

ANNAPOLIS, Md. - Navy junior middle distance runner Paul Harris (Woodbury, Minn.) has been selected the Patriot League and ECAC Track Athlete of the Week following one of the best weekends in Navy men's track & field history, it was announced on Tuesday afternoon.

Harris provisionally qualified for the NCAA Championship in two events and broke two school records at the Iowa State Classic last weekend.

He opened the weekend by competing on Navy's distance medley relay unit that posted a NCAA provisional qualifying time of 9:41.71 to place second last Friday. The effort Harris, junior Ben Kozy (Houston, Texas), junior William Ricks (Sussex, Va.) and junior Jeff Sarchione (Alliance, Ohio) ranks as the fifth-fastest time in the nation and the third-best clocking in Navy's indoor program history.

The product of Woodbury, Minn., came back on Saturday to top a field of more than 90 runners in the 800-meter run. Harris became the first Navy runner in program history to complete the indoor 800-meter run in less than 1:50.00, crossing the finish line with a blistering time of 1:48.46. The clocking places him third in the country, less than a second off of Lopez Lomong's (Northern Arizona) national-best time of 1:47.60. Harris owns the top-three indoor 800-meter run times in program history and has won the event in each of his four races this year.

Less than two hours later in the 4x400-meter relay, the final event of the meet, Harris bounced back to once again etch his name in the record books. Harris, Ricks, junior Craig Meekins (Baldwin, N.Y.) and senior indoor team captain Cameron Lindsay (Kernersville, N.C.) teamed up to break the school record with an eighth-place time of 3:12.07. The showing was more than a second faster than the previous program record set during the 1979-80 indoor season.

The Patriot League and ECAC have recognized the Navy junior twice this season, as he first earned weekly accolades following two first-place efforts against Princeton on Jan. 6. He has earned the Patriot League's Track Athlete-of-the-Week honors five times during his career.

Harris, last season's Patriot League Indoor Championship Track Athlete of the Meet, and the Midshipmen will head up to West Point, N.Y., to compete at the 2007 Patriot League Championship this Friday through Sunday.