PRINCETON, N.J. - Haverford College's men's cross country team posted a strong fourth-place finish Saturday afternoon in the eight-kilometer Championship race of the 2012 Princeton Invitatational.
The Fords, with 132 points, were easily the highest placing Division III team in the Championship event as Widener University was the next-highest D-III team in 19th place with 542 points. Haverford trailed only three D-I programs in the standings coming in behind St. Joseph's (46 points), Harvard (110) and Iona (124). Centennial Conference opponent Swarthmore College, the only other league school in the Championship race, was 21st with 552 points.
Jordan Schilit and Christopher Stadler led Haverford's scoring five across the finish with both recording times of 24 minutes, and 33 seconds. In a tightly bunched group at the finish line, Schilit was 10th with Stadler two behind in 12th.
Brian Sokas was 15 seconds behind the Haverford leaders in 36th place with Joel Christian (41st, 25:00) and Avi Bregman (49th, 25:04) coming in within the top 50 of the 212 runners.
The Fords' span between its scoring runners was only 31 seconds. St. Joe's finished with a Nos. 1-5 gap of 29 seconds, Harvard's five were separated by 14 seconds and Iona's five by 53 seconds.
Jeff Duncan finished 72nd and Sam Fujimori was 100th to give all of the Fords in the Championship race a top-100 finish.
Haverford tied for the top spot in the men's Open race, accumulating 33 points along with D-I Marist College.
Jack McNeilly was fourth overall for the Fords in a finishing time of 25:52. Ethan Haswell (sixth) and Dylan Verner-Crist (10th) gave Haverford three finishers in the Open's top 10.
The Ford's other two scoring runners, Gebby Keny and David Colletta, ran into the top-20 with 12th-place and 18th-place finishes, respectively. Haverford's gap between its first five was 32 seconds while Marist put its scoring runners across the finish with just an 18-second spread.
Saturday's race concludes the regular season for the Fords who next take to the trails with the Centennial Conference championship meet hosted by Haverford on the Alumni Course on Saturday, Oct. 27.
Championship race: Team results | Individual results
Open race: Team results | Individual results