USTFCCCA National Poll
Regional Rankings
HAVERFORD, Pa. – The Haverford College men's cross country team held steady in the national rankings, checking in at No. 15 the latest USTFCCCA national coaches' poll, the organization announced on Wednesday afternoon. On Saturday, Haverford took the Centennial Conference Championship, the 21st overall title for the Fords in 24 seasons of competition in the conference race. The Fords tallied 166 poll voting points and again were ranked as the No. 2 squad in the regional rankings behind Carnegie Mellon.
North Central (Ill.) finished first with seven of the eight first place tallies while SUNY Geneso was the second ranked team nationally, picking up one first place vote. Williams, UW-Eau Claire, MIT and UW-La Crosse round out the top five with MIT and UW-La Crosse tied in the fifth position in the nation.
Carnegie Mellon held onto its top rank in the Mideast regional poll with 80 voting points, while the Fords sat in second with 70 voting points this week. Johns Hopkins is third again with 60 voting points after pushing the Fords on Saturday before settling for second in the Centennial race. Dickinson (third at the Centennial Championships) and Widener round out the top five in the Mideast region for the fifth straight week of action.
The Fords took home the aforementioned Centennial Conference Championship for the 21st time in 24 seasons on Saturday afternoon, scoring 34 points and claiming victory by outlasting Johns Hopkins by just nine points. The Blue Jays scored 43, but it was the Fords who again prevailed in the title race, heading into the NCAA Mideast Regional on a high note. Junior Henry Woods led the Haverford harriers, finishing second overall in the 8K race.
On what turned out to be a fantastic fall day for racing, with temperatures reaching into the 70's, the Fords had four scorers within the top 10. Woods finished in 24:57.8, barely falling short of an individual championship. The honor went to Jaryd Frank, who captured Muhlenberg's first individual title with a time of 24:53.9, ending a streak of six straight individual champions from Haverford. Ryan Herlihy crossed in fifth place with a time of 25:10.9 while senior co-captain Jimmy Gorman followed right behind in sixth place with a time of 25:15.5. Dylan Gearinger was 10th in a time of 25:46.0. Graham Peet finished less than second behind Gearinger in a time of 25:46.9, good for 11th place. Greg Morgan was 12th overall in 25:47.3 while Charlie Hale crossed in 16th place with a time of 26:16.8 to round out the top seven for Haverford.
The Fords will next take the No. 15 national ranking into the NCAA Mideast Regional Championships, which will be held on Saturday, November 12 in Center Valley, Pa. The men's 8K race, hosted by DeSales University, will take place at noon.