Preview: Men's Cross Country Seeks Mideast Regional Title

Dylan Verner-Crist

Posted: Nov 13, 2015

Mideast Regional Page
USTFCCCA Regional Preview

HAVERFORD, Pa. – The No. 7 nationally ranked Haverford College men's cross country team is looking for a Mideast Regional title to add to its trophy case at the Big Spring High School in Newville, Pa. on Saturday.

471 runners from 62 schools will take part in the regional meet hosted by Dickinson College. The top two teams in the race earn automatic bids to the NCAA Championship next weekend in Wisconsin. Individuals among the top seven runners not on the top two teams will also punch their tickets to the NCAA Championship. At-large bids for those non-qualifying teams will be announced next Monday.

The Fords come in as the No. 1 team in the Mideast Regional. Haverford has been atop the regional ranks since Oct. 7, receiving eight of the nine first-place votes. The defending regional champion, Carnegie Mellon, is second followed by Centennial Conference rival Johns Hopkins. Other conference schools among the top Mideast teams include Dickinson (fifth) and Swarthmore (T-10th).

Haverford is in the mix of three-meet winning streak, the first time the team has done that since winning the conference, regional and National Championship races in in 2010.

The Fords' winning streak started with a victory at the Rowan Inter-Collegiate Border Battle (Oct. 17). Senior Charlie Marquardt won his sixth career individual title with a time of 24:40, four seconds shy of his personal best mark. The Fords' had their top five runners among the first 21 finishers in the 231-person event to win the race. The following week at the Haverford Invitational, the cross country squad had seven of the top eight scorers to win its second straight meet.

Two weeks ago, the Fords defended its Centennial Conference Championship with its five scorers placing inside the top ten, highlighted by Marquardt's second straight individual title.

Haverford scored its 20th conference title in 23 seasons while Marquardt became the 18th Ford to win the conference event. The senior is just the fifth person in conference history and fourth person from Haverford to win back-to-back titles. Chris Stadler '14 (2012-13), current cross country assistant coach J.B. Haglund '02 (2000-01) and Karl Paranya '97 (1994-96) were the other runners under head coach Tom Donnelly to win multiple crowns. With the win, Donnelly was voted the Centennial Conference Coach of the Year for the second straight year and fifth time in his career.

Marquardt (25:09.2) crossed the finish line four seconds in front of his teammate, junior Jimmy Gorman (25:13.4). Senior Sam Fujimori was fifth (25:24.2) while freshman Graham Peet (25:38.5) was eighth, senior Nicholas Gandolfo-Lucia (25:39.4) placed ninth, sophomore Henry Woods (25:39.7) finished 10th, junior Michael Brier completed the race in 11th (25:41.8) and senior Dylan Verner-Crist was 14th (26:03.4).

Haverford has not placed outside the top four at the Mideast Regional since a fifth place tally in 1988. The Fords finished fourth last season, with Marquardt, David Roza '15 and Joel Christian '15 claiming all-region status. Marquardt won the individual title and set a new course record at the Big Spring High School (24:57.4), becoming the first Ford to win the conference and regional meets since Anders Hulleberg '11 in 2010.

The men's Mideast Regional race will get started at 12:30 p.m. on Saturday while the women's race will start at 11 a.m. The 2015 NCAA Championships are next week (Nov. 21) in Oshkosh, Wisc.