ALLENTOWN, Pa. – A split squad weekend by the Haverford College men's outdoor track & field team resulted in a new Centennial Conference record and several other strong performances by the Fords.
Friday night at the Sam Howell Invitational hosted by Princeton University, Haverford's Jordan Schilit broke the conference record in the 10,000 meter run with a time of 29 minutes, 46.07 seconds. The old record (29:53.22) was owned by ex-Ford J.B. Haglund '02. Schilit finished ninth in the event at Princeton, the top Division III finisher, and his time is the second-fastest in D-III this season.
Four other Fords in the race cracked the nation's top 15. Brian Sokas (30:25:55) stands seventh in the rankings, Foraz Sohail (30:26.81) is eighth, Andrew Sturner (30:28.10) is 10th and Peter Kissin (30:46.51) is 15th.
Another pair of Fords had national-caliber performances at the meet Friday night as Tim Schoch's time of 3:53.66 in the 1,500 was the fastest D-III time in the event and fourth-fastest in all of D-III, and Eric Arnold's time of 14:52.60 in the 5,000 rates 15th-fastest on the D-III performance list.
Saturday at Mulenberg College, another group of Fords posted strong results led by Michael Riccio's first-place time of 3:57.22, a collegiate best, in the 1,500. Teammate Andrew Golato was fourth with Gebby Keny cracking the top-10 in ninth.
Newcomer Gibby Graves registered a pair of fifth-place finishes at Muhlenberg, leaping to a distance of 13.23 meters (43 feet, 5 inches) on his final attempt in the triple jump, and clearing a height of 1.85m (6-0.75) in the high jump. Andrew Bennett posted a sixth-place leap in the triple jump for the Fords.
Michael Iannacone continued a strong year in the pole vault. Following up on several personal bests during the indoor season, Iannacone smashed his previous outdoor collegiate best (3.85m/12-7.5) setting a new high mark of 4.12m (13-6.25) which was fourth-best at Muhlenberg.
Kahmai Martin-Kirkland launched his best collegiate toss in the discus Saturday with a fifth-place distance of 41.55m (136-4).
On the track, Soren Rasmussen was fifth and Ivo Milic-Strkalj was ninth in the 800, and Sam Callon finished fifth in the 400.
The Fords head to the New Jersey Invitational hosted by The College of New Jersey for their next meet on Saturday, April 14.