HAVERFORD, Pa. - The Haverford College men's track & field team logged several top performances at home inside the Alumni Field House on Saturday, as the Keogh Invitational wrapped up the regular season in earnest.
Reza Eshghi took home the mile crown on Saturday with his 4:15.84 showing, heading into the Centennial Conference meet with another standout turn on the oval as a large grouping of Fords competed in the distance. Ryan Quenemoen (9th, 4:41.79), Seamus Flannery (10th, 4:42.07) and Joseph De Rosa (11th, 4:42.50) all bested the CC qualifying standard while Tommaso Wheeler (15th, 4:58.62) finished under five minutes. Kieran McDonnell (17th, 5:00.8), Deven Abrams (19th, 5:08.81), and Xingyun Yang (21st, 5:09.67) rounded out the Haverford contingent in the event.
First-year Micah Lachman was the top Haverford finisher in the Eddie Papalia ('05) Memorial 800m run, taking third overall. Lachman crossed in 2:02.04. The event was named in memory of Papalia, a three-time track & field All-American who graduated from Haverford in 2005. Papalia passed away in June of 2012. Sam Diaz (2:08.09) and Seawon Park (2:11.75) also notched top 20 finishes for the Fords in the event.
The 200-meter dash was won by Jonathan Hill, as the junior crossed in 23.74 to pace the field. David Cole was the sixth to cross, notching a time of 26.58, while Caesar Dai (26.61) was seventh and Leo Gordon crossed in ninth (26.98). Jonah Hoffman-Weitsman was the 10th finisher in 27.46, just ahead of Kevin Villafane, who was 11th in 27.66. Ravi Eaton won the 400-meter dash in 52.06, collecting the event title while Vir Goyal (56.29) was 10th. Dai (57.83) took home 11th, ahead of Matthew Ruiz in 13th (1:03.46).
In the 60-meter dash, Hill placed fifth to lead the way, crossing in 7.52. Amon-Ra Kamit was the eighth-fastest in 7.85, while Cole logged a time of 7.97 for 10th place overall.
In field events, Eaton captured the triple jump to highlight a two-event title day as he soared 12.76 meters (41 feet, 10.5 inches). In the long jump, both Nathan Ma and Leo Gordon scored points for Haverford. Ma logged a jump of 5.66 meters (18 feet, 7 inches) while Gordon posted a mark of 5.16 meters (16 feet, 11.25 inches), a new personal best for the first year.
Villafane competed in the pole vault, as the debutant cleared 2.45 meters for a fourth-place showing. Rasaaq Shittu paced the throwers, with his 9.73-meter toss (31 feet, 11.25 inches) resulting in a 14th-place finish.
Cyrus Slavin (9.56 meters or 31 feet, 4.5 inches) was the 16th finisher, ahead of 17th-place Tiger Wang (8.76 meters or 28 feet, 9 inches) and 18th-place finisher Jonah Levine (8.40 meters or 27 feet, 6.75 inches). Juan Miguel Pinto Diaz was 19th with a toss of 8.2 meters (26 feet, 11 inches) and Ethan Ezray logged a toss of 6.75 meters (22 feet, 1.75 inches). Slavin notched a mark of 12.63 meters (41 feet, 5.25 inches) in Friday night's weight throw, held at Ursinus, narrowly missing a personal best to begin the meet.
The Fords will now return to action next weekend at the Centennial Conference Championships, which are slated for February 25 and 26 at Franklin & Marshall. The action gets underway at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday with the Men's Triple Jump and weight throw while the majority of individual track events are contested Sunday.