Centennial Conference Championship Central
Haverford at the Centennial Conference Meet
HAVERFORD, Pa. – Haverford will host the 2018 Centennial Conference Cross Country Championships on Saturday afternoon, welcoming the annual conference meet to the Alumni Cross Country Course for the fourth time since 2012. The men's squad, ranked fourth in the nation entering the meet, will have high expectations as they seek a fifth consecutive conference title.
The field is one of the strongest in recent memory, as a formidable Johns Hopkins side ranks just behind the Fords at No. 6 in the nation while No. 24 Dickinson also lurks as a strong contender making noise on the national stage. Johns Hopkins took a victory at the Rowan Inter-Regional Border Battle two weeks ago, while Dickinson performed well at the Connecticut College meet. The Blue Jays (2013) and Red Devils (2008, 2009) are the only other teams to win the team title with Haverford never finishing lower than third in the championship.
The target will rightly be on Tom Donnelly's squad, however. Haverford has won 22 of the total 25 Centennial Conference championships, including each championship hosted at the Alumni Cross Country Course. The program will look to continue its string of dominance with a built in advantage of running on a home course. In total, the Fords have seen 19 individual champions in the year-end meet, including Henry Woods '18 a season ago. Woods was named Centennial Conference Runner of the Year, and eventually took home a second straight All-America certificate. Karl Paranya '97 is the program's only three-time champion, achieving the feat in 1994-96.
A season ago, the Fords sprinted to a dominating title performance at Gettysburg, scoring 21 points, easily outpacing a Johns Hopkins side that scored 54 and a Dickinson squad that totaled 79.
Haverford put four runners in front of the first Johns Hopkins finisher in 2017, with returners Graham Peet, Ryan Herlihy, and Dylan Gearinger all earning conference's first-team designation on a rainy Sunday. Sam McCalpin and Greg Morgan also return from All-Centennial finishes last year to round out a standout top five for Haverford. The five have scored in some combination for the Fords in each meet this season, propelling Haverford to a top 10 finish at the Paul Short Run Gold Race as well as a No. 4 finish at Pre-Nationals.
First years Peter Buckley and Jamie Moreland figure to round out the Haverford top seven after making a strong impression at the pre-national meet a fortnight ago. David Watt, Matt Katz, and Chris Goings also highlight an experienced field that will look to break into the scoring. The trio all ran in the Paul Short Gold Race in September, running strong in one of the largest and most prestigious all-division meets in the nation.
The men's race is slated to begin at 12 p.m., following the conclusion of the 11 a.m. women's contest. A live stream of the finish line will be avaliable on CentennialConference.tv. The Open Race gets underway for both genders at 12:45 p.m.
The first through seventh place finishers in each race will earn first-team All-CC accolades, while eighth through 14th place runners will garner second-team status. The 2018 Centennial Conference Championships serve as a prelude to the Mideast Regional, which is slated for Saturday, November 10 in Center Valley, Pa. on the campus of DeSales University.
Fans are encouraged to follow @CentennialConf on Twitter and Instagram for race day coverage.