MEDFORD, Mass. - The Haverford College men's indoor distance medley relay squad ran to the second-best time in program history on Saturday at the Tufts National Qualifying Meet.

The final qualifying opportunity for next week's NCAA Championships attracted Division III teams from all over the nation to the Boston area. The Fords notched a time of 9:57.53, eclipsing their Centennial Conference gold-medal winning time of 10:00.77 by more than three seconds. 

Haverford's same foursome from championship weekend, Ravi Eaton, Matthew Denton, Reza Eshghi and Jamie Moreland, etched their name firmly into the runner-up spot on the program's all-time indoor list with the sixth-place overall finish, eclipsing the 9:57.50 that Charlie Marquardt, Jonathan Yellets, Gebby Keny and Christopher Stadler ran at the NCAA Championships in 2014. 

That 2014 performance was good for second overall and broke the previous national meet record, but unfortunately for the 2023 relay squad, a bevy of blazing fast DMR performances dotted the national landscape over the last two days of racing as teams converged on fast tracks with eyes on claiming those coveted bids to nationals.

With large contingents of elite DMR teams posting season-best marks at both Wartburg and Tufts, the Haverford time currently sits as the 17th best in the nation. Only the top 12 declared relay squads are accepted into the national championships, as Haverford will now be forced to rely on scratches to qualify as a relay team. 

Moreland (currently fifth in the mile) and Ryan Kredell (18th in the 3,000 meters and seventh in the 5,000 meters) figure to be in good shape to represent the Fords at the 2023 NCAA Division III Indoor Championships in Birmingham, Alabama next weekend as individuals, with final accepted entries announced on Sunday at 7 p.m. via NCAA.com press release.