SWARTHMORE, Pa. - Haverford College sophomores Jonathan Yellets and Gibby Graves joined senior Christopher Stadler as league champions on the final day of competition at the 2014 Centennial Conference Outdoor Track and Field Championships at Swarthmore College.
Haverford's men's track and field team finished the meet with 167 points and placed second overall. Johns Hopkins University captured 209.5 team points to finish in first. Swarthmore College finished eighth which gave the Fords the final point available in this year's race for the Hood Trophy. Haverford won the annual friendly competition between the two institutions for the 23rd consecutive year with a final score of 12 to 6.
Graves garnered the Men's Outstanding Field Performer award after jumping to a first-place finish in the triple jump on Sunday, and winning the long jump on Saturday. Graves launched his body 13.67 meters (44 feet, 10.25 inches) in the triple jump and became the first Haverford athlete to win the event since 2009. Teammate Andy Bennett placed third with a result of 13.41 meters (44 feet). Graves' jump in the event set a new career record for the junior.
Yellets and Stadler each ran to gold-medal times on the track in Sunday's finals. Stadler broke his own conference meet record in the 5,000-meter run by racing to the highest spot in 14 minutes, 28.70 seconds. Stadler won the event for a second straight season and became the ninth Haverford runner to win the event in the past 11 years. Brian Sokas (third), Avi Bregman (fifth) and David Roza (sixth) also placed in the top eight for Haverford in the event.
Yellets sprinted to an all-conference time in the 400-meter dash when he crossed the finish line in 49.50 seconds and in first place. His gold-medal result was the first for the Fords in 10 years. The sophomore also placed seventh in the 200-meter dash at 22.98 seconds.
For his victory in the 400-meter run Yellets was given the Ed Skeath Award. Swarthmore hands out the award every year it hosts the conference meet to the winners of the 400.
Yellets also guided the 4x100-meter relay to an all-conference finish. The quartet of Yellets, Jeffrey Ainsley, Sam Callon, and Alex Frost placed second in the event with the team's fastest time this year of 42.75 seconds.
The 4x400-meter relay saw Yellets, Callon and Frost join with Gebby Keny to run to a fourth-place time of 3:24.44.
The Fords picked up more team points in the 1,500-meter relay as Charlie Marquardt and Stadler each crossed the finish line in top-four times. Marquardt took silver in 3:50.30 and Stadler ran a personal-best time of 3:51.07 to capture the fourth position.
Marquardt and Keny concluded the 800-meter run in third and fourth, respectively. Marquardt cruised to a career-best finish of 1:53.46 and Keny crossed right behind him in fourth at 1:54.73.
The Fords will compete in Swarthmore's Last Chance Meet on Monday, May 12 before several Fords will travel to Delaware, Ohio for the NCAA Championships later in May.