USTFCCCA National Poll
Regional Rankings
HAVERFORD, Pa. – The Haverford College men's cross country team went up into a tie for the No. 8 position in the latest US Track and Field Cross Country Coaches' Association national poll. The Fords also stayed as the No. 1 team in the Mideast Region.
Haverford's No. 8 ranking is the team's highest since being placed No. 1 on November 12th, 2012. The Fords have made a steady ascent in 2015, improving from No. 23 in the preseason to its current position.
UW-Eau Claire remains atop its birch as the top team in the national poll. Williams, North Central (Ill.), St. Olaf and Amherst finish out the rest of the top five. Johns Hopkins is the only other team in the Centennial Conference ranked nationally at No. 23.
Head coach Tom Donnelly's squad received six of the seven first-place votes to continue as the top team in the Mideast Regional. The other conference teams in the rankings are Johns Hopkins (No. 3) and Dickinson (No. 5).
The Fords took home the team title at the Rowan Inter-Collegiate Border Battle last weekend behind senior Charlie Marquardt's first place finish (24:40). Marquardt was the first to cross the finish line, eight seconds in front of Ernie Pitone of Widener. The returning Centennial Conference Runner of the Year has won five of the last seven races he's entered. His time was just four seconds shy of his personal best mark.
Haverford had the lowest total among the 24 teams entered in the event with 62 points. The Fords had their top five runners among the first 21 finishers in the 231-person event. TCNJ was second with 98 points, followed by Elizabethtown (132), Geneseo St. (151) and Ramapo (159). Centennial Conference rival, Dickinson, was seventh with Swarthmore (16th) and Johns Hopkins (19th) also participating in the event.
With his stellar run, Marquardt was selected as the Centennial Conference Co-Runner of the Week, the conference announced this week. It's the senior fifth career cross country weekly honor and third this season.
The men's cross country team will host the Haverford Invitational at the Alumni Cross Country Course on Friday (Oct. 23) at 5 p.m. before traveling to Stevenson for the Centennial Conference Championship on Halloween (Oct. 31).