HAVERFORD, Pa. – Both the Haverford College men's and women's cross country teams had a number of runners with strong performances Friday at the Haverford Invitational. The men had 12 of the top-13 Division III finishers while the women had seven of the top-11.

The men's top-three finishers all crossed the finish line within the first pack of runners that consisted of mainly Villanova University participants. Freshman Brian Sokas was the top D-III finisher, coming in sixth (20:22.15). Faraz Sohail (20:26.17) and Ivo Milic-Strkalj (20:26.17) took ninth and 10th, respectively.

Peter Kissin (20:45.91) took 14th and was followed by Elias Tousley by 12 seconds. Andrew Golato (21:01.69), David Coletta (21:03.47) and Christopher Stadler (21:04.64) finished 18th-20th, respectively. Overall, the Fords had 17 runners finish in the top-half of the 81 participant race.

Matthew Gibney of Villanova crossed the finish line in 20:06.52 to take first place.

The women were led by Emily Lipman's (18:20.57) eighth-place performance. Lipman was the first D-III runner to finish. Sara Hess finished 12th (18:49.64) and was followed by a pack of teammates that finished 16th-19th.

Sally Weathers (18:56.28) paced the pack that had Bridget Freeley (18:58.19), Liz Zoidis (18:59.55) and Rachael Potter (19:15.21) finish within 19 seconds of each other.

Villanova's Callie Hogan won the race in a time of 17:00.48.

Both teams will now gear up for the Centennial Conference championship race Saturday, Oct. 30 at Johns Hopkins University. The men's race gets underway at 11 a.m. followed by the women's race at noon.