No. 3 Men's Cross Country Finishes 10th at Paul Short Run Gold Race

No. 3 Men's Cross Country Finishes 10th at Paul Short Run Gold Race

BETHLEHEM, Pa. - The third-ranked Haverford College men's cross country team sprinted to an impressive 10th place finish at the Paul Short Run 8K Gold Race at Lehigh University on Saturday morning, crossing as the top Division III finisher in the race. The Gold Race was the elite men's division at the largest regular season intercollegiate cross country meet in the United States. The team rose to its first significant early season challenge, easily eclipsing the finishes of NCAA podium teams in recent program history. 

The Fords outran Division III opponents No. 13 Carnegie Mellon (11th place), No. 9 Johns Hopkins (18th place), No. 11 Amherst (22nd place), and No. 28 Christopher Newport (35th place). Haverford also bested regionally-ranked Division I foes Lehigh, Penn, Saint Joseph's, La Salle, American, and notable names such as Georgia and UConn. 

Seniors Ryan Herlihy and Graham Peet each crossed the finish line in 25:09, becoming the top two Division III individual finishers in the process in 37th and 38th, respectively. Senior Dylan Gearinger was Haverford's third finisher, completing the course in 25:28 for 72nd overall while senior Greg Morgan was 95th overall in 25:36. Junior Sam McCalpin crossed in 105th (25:41). First year runners Peter Buckley (26:19, 195th) and Jamie Moreland (26:20, 196th) crossed in tandem to round out the scorers for the Fords.

Finishing outside the scoring for Haverford, junior David Watt finished in 26:31 for a 236th place finish while senior Chris Goings was 278th in a time of 26:54. Sophomore Matt Katz finished 328th with a time of 27:29.

In the 8K open race that kicked off the day of action on the course, sophomore Jack Hunter paced the Fords with a time of 27:05, finishing in 76th overall. Junior Conor Madden (27:10), first year Amos Karlsen (27:35), first year Max Brelig (27:51), first year Nico Tripeny (28:14), sophomore Gene Perry (28:56), and junior Steve Gan (29:06) rounded out the top five finishers for Haverford.

Haverford will return to action on Saturday, October 13 as the Fords test their mettle against the best in the nation at this season's designated pre-national meet, the UW-Oshkosh Kollege Town Sports Cross Country Invitational in Oshkosh, Wisc. Other Haverford runners will stay a bit closer to home, competing at the Jack Saint Clair Memorial Invitational at Philadelphia's Belmont Plateau on the same afternoon.