Men's Cross Country Ranked No. 9 in National Poll

Sam McCalpin
Sam McCalpin

USTFCCCA Division III National Poll
USTFCCCA Division III Regional Rankings

HAVERFORD, Pa. – The Haverford College men's cross country team checks in as the ninth-ranked team in the nation in the latest United States Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) NCAA Division III Cross Country poll, the organization announced on Wednesday afternoon. Haverford is ranked second in the Mid-Atlantic region for the third straight week.

North Central (Ill.) continues as the top-ranked squad in the national poll, garnering all eight first place votes. SUNY Geneseo checks in at second while Wisconsin-La Crosse, Williams and Centennial foe Johns Hopkins round out an unchanged top five from a week ago. Wisconsin-Eau Claire rises a spot from seventh to sixth while Pomona-Pitzer moves up four spots to seventh, entering the top 10 after a number 11 ranking a week ago. MIT goes from sixth to eighth while Loras jumps over Haverford from 10th place a week ago. 

Dickinson is the only other Centennial Conference squad ranked in the poll, moving up three spots to number 24 in the nation. Carleton is the biggest mover in the entirety of the poll, climbing eight spots from 35th to 27th.

At the Main Line Invitational last Friday, The Fords outpaced local rivals Swarthmore and Widener, scoring a near-perfect 16 points to 61 points for Swarthmore and 65 for Widener. Dylan Gearinger led all Division III entrants with a new career-best time of 19:58.45. Haverford had the top four Division III finishers as Gearinger was followed closely by Henry Woods (20:14.2), Ryan Herlihy (20:19.8), and Graham Peet (20:28.0). Sam McCalpin finished sixth to round out the scorers for Haverford with a time of 20.41.3.

Head Coach Tom Donnelly's squad will have a full week off before the Paul Short Run on Friday, September 29 at Lehigh University. The race is slated to begin at 9:30 a.m.