NCAA Division III Championships Website
HAVERFORD, Pa. – The Haverford College men's cross country team will compete at the NCAA Division III National Championships for the 26th straight season on Saturday afternoon at the Lake Breeze Golf Club in Winneconne, Wis. Haverford has qualified for the second-most NCAA Division III Championship meets of any program (36), trailing only North Central (Ill.). The Fords, the 2010 national champions, have ascended to the podium six times in program history, including back-to-back national runner up finishes in 2011 and 2012. Individually, the Fords have seen three national champions, with Anders Hulleberg taking the crown in 2010, current assistant coach J.B. Haglund winning in 2001, and Seamus McElligott topping the field in 1990.
Buoyed by a senior-laden top seven, the seventh-ranked Fords will look to replicate the national success of those squads from earlier this decade in 2018. In the final USTFCCCA poll before the national race, the Fords are ranked seventh. North Central (Ill.), Washington-St. Louis, RPI, Wisconsin-Lacrosse, Calvin, and Carnegie Mellon made up the top six prognosticated ahead of Haverford in the poll. Centennial Conference foe Johns Hopkins lurks at No. 12 in the nation.
Last weekend at the Mideast Regional Championship in Center Valley, Pa., the Fords finished second in the Mideast, earning automatic qualification to the national championship race. Senior Ryan Herlihy paced Haverford, finishing second overall with a time of 25:57. Senior Graham Peet, the defending Mideast Regional Runner of the Year, was fifth overall with a time of 26:10. Senior Greg Morgan finished ninth overall, crossing in 26:15. By virtue of a top-35 finish, Peet earned all-region honors for the fourth time. Herlihy and Morgan each earned all-region honors for the third straight season. Junior Sam McCalpin crossed the finish in 16th with a time of 26:28, picking up all-region honors for a second consecutive season.
Two weeks prior at the Centennial Conference meet, the Fords picked up their fifth straight and 23rd overall conference title, extending a run of conference meet dominance that has lasted more than two decades under head coach Tom Donnelly.
Peet will become just the 12th runner in program history to make four appearances at the national championship, joining a group that includes Haverford legends such as Karl Paranya, Seamus McElligott, and Kevin Foley. Jimmy Gorman was the last to achieve the feat, appearing at four straight from 2013-2016. Morgan and Herlihy will each make their third appearance at nationals while Sam McCalpin will repeat his debut trip from a season ago. David Watt, Jamie Moreland, and Peter Buckley are all expected to make their first appearances on the national stage in 2018.
The national race returns to Winneconne for the first time since the 2015 campaign. The Fords finished 12th at that November meet, with Charlie Marquardt pacing the squad to earn All-America designation. Peet finished in 140th, an impressive debut as a first year that helped pave the way for the senior co-captain to become one of the anchors of the squad in his final cross country season.
The top 40 runners at the national meet will earn All-America honors. The Fords have had 36 All-Americans in cross country, including one in each of the last three seasons, with Henry Woods (2017, 2016) and Marquardt (2015) earning the honor. Haverford will be looking for multiple All-America finishes for the first time since 2012 when Christopher Stadler and Peter Kissin finished 12th and 28th, respectively, to propel the Fords to a second place overall finish.
The men's 8k race will begin at 12:15 p.m. central time (1 p.m. Eastern), following the women's race as 11:00 am (noon eastern). FloTrack will be providing the live stream of the event via its subscription service. Live results are also avaliable via the link at the top of this page.