No. 3 Men's Cross Country Competes for Mideast Regional Title on Saturday

No. 3 Men's Cross Country Competes for Mideast Regional Title on Saturday

Mideast Regional Meet Information

HAVERFORD, Pa. – The third-ranked Haverford College men's cross country team will look to secure a spot in the NCAA Division III Championship this weekend as the Fords travel to the NCAA Mideast Regional on Saturday morning. The regional meet, hosted by conference foe Dickinson College, will take place at Big Spring High School in Newville, Pa. The men's 8K race is slated to begin at 11 a.m. with the women's race to follow at 12:15 p.m.

The top two squads at the Mideast Regional will garner an automatic qualification to the NCAA Championship race in Elsah, Illinois on November 18. In addition to the automatic team berths on the line, Individual runners from squads outside of the top two will qualify for nationals automatically with a top seven finish. There are 16 at-large berths to be split across the national landscape, with selections to be finalized on Sunday.

Haverford, the top ranked squad in the Mideast Region, will be one of 57 schools represented in the men's race on Saturday. Other contenders for the automatic berths include three nationally-ranked squads: No. 12 Carnegie Mellon (second in the region), No. 14 Johns Hopkins (third in the region) and No. 22 York (Pa.) (fourth in the region).

Haverford will be represented by a seven-man combination of runners from an delcared pool of 10 entrants: Dylan Gearinger, Ryan Herlihy, Marcelo Jauregui-Volpe, Sam McCalpin, Greg Morgan, Graham Peet, Lincoln Satterthwaite, James Stadler, Matt Willig and Henry Woods. Last season, Woods finished third overall at the DeSales-hosted regional in Center Valley, Pa. Woods, Herlihy, Peet and Morgan will all look to follow up All-Region performances from a season ago.

As a team, Haverford will be looking to return to Nationals for the 25th consecutive season, dating back to the 1993 campaign. The Fords finished second in the Mideast Regional race last season and last won the regional in the 2015 season. Tom Donnelly's squad last finished outside of the top five in the regional race in 1988.

In a dominant season thus far, the Fords have captured three event titles and were also the top Division III finisher at the Paul Short Run. On October 29, Haverford captured its 22nd Centennial Conference title in the last 25 seasons as Woods was named Centennial Conference Men's Runner of the Year after taking the individual title. Woods was the 19th Ford to take the individual Centennial title. 

In the awards release following the meet, Donnelly was voted the Conference Coach of the Year for the fourth consecutive season. With finishes in the top seven overall, Woods, Peet, Herlihy, and Gearinger were all named first-team All-Centennial Conference. McCalpin, Morgan and Jauregui-Volpe were named to the second team by virtue of a top 14 finish at the Centennial Championships. The honor represents the third straight Centennial Conference recognition for Woods and the second straight for Herlihy, Gearinger, Peet and Morgan. McCalpin, and Jauregui-Volpe picked up all-conference designation for the first time.