SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. – The Haverford College men's cross country team punched its ticket to the national championship meet with a loud 'click' Saturday morning, running away with the 2010 NCAA Mideast Regional title.

The Fords, ranked No. 5 in the Nov. 3 United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association's (USTFCCCA) national poll, pushed their five scoring runners across the finish line of the 8-kilometer course at Cooper's Lake Campground within the first seven finishers.

Senior Anders Hulleberg followed his Centennial Conference individual championship two weekends ago with the Mideast Regional crown Saturday finishing in a time of 24 minutes, 59.7 seconds.

After Jeramie Parker of Allegheny College and Dylan Straughan from Dickinson College followed in second and third place, respectively, Haverford took the next four spots.

Senior Lucas Fuentes led that quartet of Fords with a fourth-place time of 25:24.5. Junior Eric Arnold was fifth (25:28.5), senior Chris Southwick was sixth (25:29.5) and sophomore Jordan Schilit was seventh (25:29.9).

Junior Tim Schoch (11th, 25:34.3) and senior Joseph Carpenter (15th, 25:37.2) rounded out the seven racers for the Fords. The spread between Hulleberg's finish and Carpenter's was just 38 seconds.

The Fords posted a winning total of 23 points, 24 points ahead of runner-up Dickinson. The squad from host Carnegie Mellon University was farther back in third (122 points) and Allegheny finished fifth (142).

After the Fords and Red Devils swept the top two spots, the Centennial was able to put two more teams within the top-10: Johns Hopkins University in seventh and Muhlenberg College in ninth. Gettysburg College was 12th, Swarthmore College was 17th, Franklin & Marshall College ended in 21st and Ursinus College closed out the conference squads with a 27th-place finish.

Next up for Haverford will be the NCAA D-III national championship race Nov. 21 in Wartburg, Iowa.