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Cadet Alexander Block ’17 Delivers Game Ball at Historic Army-Navy Faceoff

For the first time in 77 years, the Army-Navy game was played at West Point on Saturday. Since World War II, the two teams have squared off at a neutral location, most recently Philadelphia. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic and state restrictions on large gatherings in Pennsylvania, the game was moved to the United States Military Academy on the banks of the Hudson River in New York.

In November, the West Point Marathon Team ran its culminating competitive marathon on campus. As the fastest male runner on the school’s marathon team, with a 2:49:59 time, Cadet Alexander Block ’17, a senior at the academy, was chosen along with junior and fastest female runner Emily DiNallo to deliver the game ball on Saturday, a decades-old tradition between the two schools.

Block and teammates set out at 10:00 a.m. on Friday to relay the ball for 24 hours, finishing on Saturday morning by running onto the field just before kickoff. Participating in the 24-hour relay, Block ran roughly 25 miles on his own, which contributed to a team total of over 400 collective miles and the ball traveling over 170 miles. In a show of solidarity, Block and DiNallo were joined by midshipmen from the United States Naval Academy for the last five kilometers.

Congratulations to Block on the honor and his upcoming graduation in May.
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