BETHLEHEM, Pa. – The No. 9 ranked Haverford College men's cross country team raced to a 17th place finish in the Gold 8K race at the Paul Short Run, hosted by Lehigh University on Friday morning. The meet is considered the largest regular season intercollegiate cross country meet in the nation.
Haverford was the top Division III finisher in the event, out-racing No. 8 Amherst (25th), No. 13 Christopher Newport (27th), No. 15 Williams (32nd), No. 3 Johns Hopkins (35th), No. 17 Middlebury (36th) and No. 24 TCNJ (40th) in the process. The performance matches the 17th place performance of the 2012 cross country squad that finished the season as the national runner-up.
Utah State captured the overall event title with Dillon Maggard taking the individual crown with a time of 23:27. The Fords outpaced Division I programs such as American (19th) and Lehigh (20th) and were narrowly edged by Villanova (14th).
Haverford finished with 474 points, an average time of 24:46, and a spread of 0:52. Junior Dylan Gearinger led Haverford with a 41st place finish, the highest of any Division III entrant. The 24:17 finish was a new career best time for Gearinger.
Reigning 2016 All-America selection senior Henry Woods was second on the team, with an 82nd place finish in 24:43. Junior Graham Peet finished in 100th in a time of 24:51 while junior Ryan Herlihy crossed right behind him in 103rd with an identical time of 24:51. Junior Greg Morgan was 148th in 25:08 to round out the scoring quintet for the Fords while sophomore Sam McCalpin finished in 170th with a time of 25:17. Senior James Stadler rounded out the top seven with a time of 25.37. Senior Matt Willig finished in 25:42 for a 249th place finish while senior Marcelo Jauregui-Volpe followed in 25:43 to round out the contingent for Haverford.
In the 8K open race, contested before the 8K Gold Race kicked off, Lincoln Satterthwaite (26:30), Chris Goings (26:36), David Watt (26:50), Tyler Fong (26:52) and Hiro Kawakatsu (27:04) were the top five finishers for the Fords.
Haverford is next in action at the Rowan Invitational in Glassboro, N.J. on Saturday, October 14.