ALLENTOWN, Pa. – Senior Gibby Graves set a new conference meet record in the high jump and scored a victory in the long jump to help the Haverford College men's track & field team to second in the team standings after day two of the Centennial Conference Outdoor Championships at Scotty Wood Stadium on Saturday.
Graves also reached a personal record in the high jump (2.06m), good for the 12th highest in Division III. The senior had a jump of 7.07m in the long jump to defend his conference crown from last season. He's the first Haverford jumper to win the long jump in back-to-back years since Masilo Grant '97 in 1995-96.
Haveford had a stellar steeplechase event with five runners placing in the top ten, including senior David Roza's individual title (9:18.02). Roza placed second in last year's conference meet. Senior John Curry shattered his career best mark with a 9:29.03 to finish third. Junior Nick Gandolfo-Lucia (9:42.09) and senior Soren Rasmussen (9:49.09) set personal bests and finished in top ten. Freshman Brad Morbeck crossed the finish line in the 10th position (10:04.95).
In the 400m preliminaries, junior Jonathan Yellets ran his best time of the season (50.38), advancing to the finals with a third place finish. Sophomore Alex Frost just missed qualifying for the finals in the 100m, placing 10th (11.38). Junior Charlie Marquardt reached the 800m finals with the fourth quickest time in the preliminaries (1:56.21). The 400m hurdles event had junior Dorvil Gabriel make the finals (57.74) with a career best mark while freshman Daniel Sax posted a top ten time (59.93).
The Fords' 4x800 relay team placed fourth with a time of 7:52.53.
After eight events, head coach Tom Donnelly's squad has 57 points, 41 behind Johns Hopkins. Gettysburg is third (43), followed by Dickinson (30), McDaniel (20.5), Muhlenberg (19.5), Franklin and Marshall (19), Ursinus (16) and Swarthmore (nine). The shot put gets the action started tomorrow at 11 a.m. The Fords finished second at last year's outdoor conference meet after winning the conference titles in 2012 and 2013.