CHESTER, Pa. – Haverford junior thrower Josiah Legaspi set a new school record in the hammer throw, with a mark of 39.30m on Saturday afternoon at the Chester Quarry Classic. The mark, which translates to an English mark of 128 feet and 11 and half inches, eclipses the previous school record of 123 feet and six inches set in 1905 by Harold Jones '05.
The long-standing record fell just a week after Legaspi edged closer to eclipsing Jones with a mark of 121 feet and one inch on April 8. The mark is also second in the Centennial Conference.
Elsewhere, the Fords had outstanding performances in the middle distances, with a slew of new personal bests and top times amongst the best in the conference and region.
In the 800m, Liam Lynch finished third overall with a personal-best time of 1:54.35, the current best time in the conference. He was followed by Peter Kurtz who crossed in fifth place with a time of 1:55.51, narrowly missing a personal-best mark. In seventh place was Chris Goings, who finished in 1:55.90, a personal best. Tyler Fong (1:58.64) was 13th, Hiroshi Kawakatsu was 18th (personal-best 2:00.47) and Ian Woodhouse was 21st (personal-best 2:02.87) to round out the Haverford contingent in the distance.
The 1500m saw a large chunk of Haverford entrants, including fifth-place finisher Greg Morgan, who crossed in 3:52.36, eclipsing his previous personal best by more than seven seconds and setting a new season-high for the Centennial Conference. Henry Woods finished in ninth with a time of 3:54.57, a new personal best. Dylan Gearinger followed in 10th with a personal-best time of 3:55.17. Julian Schneider was 12th (personal-best 3:58.79) while Graham Peet finished in 16th (personal-best 4:01.30), Ryan Herlihy was 18th (personal-best 4:01.70) and Jimmy Gorman was 20th (personal-best 4:02.80).
Finishing in 22nd through 26th were Sam McCalpin (4:03.70), Lincoln Satterthwaite (personal-best 4:04.28), James Stadler (personal-best 4:05.72), Charlie Hale (personal-best 4:05.90) and Simon Perales (4:06.15). Chris Gandolfo-Lucia (4:09.22), James Barker (personal-best 4:09.87) and Marcelo Jauregui-Volpe (4:10.65) were 29th through 31st while David Watt (4:11.50), Evan Hamilton (4:25.19), Josh Frye (personal-best 4:31.16) and Liam Bassett (4:40.95) rounded out the Haverford finishers.
Matthew Willig competed in the 3000m steeplechase, finishing in fifth with a time of 10:17.22.
In relay action, Haverford finished in second in the 4x100 with a time of 44.39 as Greg Van Aken, Zach Oji, Lynch and Frost competed for the Fords. In the 4x400 meter relay, Oji, Lynch, Frost and Peter Kurtz crossed in 3:25.23, good for a sixth place finish while the squad of Kawakatsu, Woodhouse, Goings and Gandolfo-Lucia crossed in 3:37.83 for ninth.
In other field events, Jack Brower was fourth in the high jump with a mark of 1.80m, a new personal best. Chris Glazer was fifth in 1.70m while Rohan Shukla (personal-best 1.65m) and Cameron Albrecht (1.60m) were sixth and eighth, respectively. Shukla was 13th in the long jump (personal-best 5.79m) while Brower was 16th (personal-best 5.68m), Glazer was 20th (5.28m) and Albrecht was 21st (personal-best 5.23m). Shukla finished in 11th in the triple jump (11.47m).
Van Aken was eighth in the pole vault with a mark of 3.60m and George Avecillas finished sixth in the Javelin with a mark of 40.02m.
In the 200m, Alex Frost finished in 23.36, good for a 15th place finish. The mark just narrowly missed a personal best for Frost. Oscar Huang finished in 32nd with a time of 25.85, matching his mark from last week at the West Chester Invitational. Huang also competed in the 100m, crossing in 12:42 for a 17th place finish.
The Fords will continue the lead up to the Centennial Conference championships on Friday, sending runners to the Princeton Distance Meet and the Widener Invitational before returning to Widener on Saturday for a full slate of action. The Fords will host the lone home meet of the season on Tuesday, April 25 on Johnson Track at 4:00 p.m.