Heading into the Navy Invitational Saturday, the men’s track & field team will likely count on a budding sprinter and jumper in sophomore Darryl McDuffie to maintain his current hot streak after a career performance a week ago at the Gotham Invitational.

McDuffie was the headliner at the 168th Armory in New York last week, qualifying for the IC4A Championships in the high jump with a personal-best mark of 2.06 meters. McDuffie also posted a personal-best time of 7.28 seconds in the 60-meter dash to cap a successful afternoon.

The Owls will also look for points from a solid field-event core.

Freshman jumper Jamal Williams and junior jumper Gabe Pickett anchored the long jumping unit in New York, placing 17th and 19th with jumps of 6.41 meters and 6.40 meters, respectively.

“Jumpers such as [Pickett] and [McDuffie] have been really good and we’re looking for them to get even better,” coach Eric Mobley said. “We’re looking for some overall team direction and improvement in all of the different events. Some of our top athletes have been in field, but we’re looking for them to spread the wealth around the entire team.”

–Andrew Parent