HAVERFORD, Pa. - The No. 23 Haverford College men's cross country team hosted the Haverford Invitational on Friday afternoon at the Alumni Cross Country Course, with mid-autumn weather conditions making for a perfect afternoon for racing. The Fords placed all five scorers within the top 10 attached runners in a solid dual meet showing against Division I Villanova. With the Centennial Conference championships fast approaching, the Fords had a limited number of entrants slated for the final home meet of the regular season.
Junior Jack Hunter was the top Haverford finisher, crossing in 11th place overall in a time of 21:04.9, a new career best in the 4-mile distance. Senior co-captain Hiro Kawakatsu was directly behind his teammate, crossing in a personal-best 21:08.6. First year Nathaniel Leighninger (21:13.4), sophomore Nico Tripeny (21:17.5), senior James Barker (21:18.6), and junior Simon Perales (21:26.8) then crossed in rapid succession in 14th through 17th place, respectively. All three posted new PRs in the process. First year Charlie Ferguson was just outside the scoring, crossing in 21st with a time of 21:54.1.
Sophomore Amos Karlsen then paced a large contingent of Haverford runners that crossed consecutively, with a time of 22:03.4, good for 23rd place overall. Sophomore Ryan O'Donnell (22:03.5), senior Sam Ditkovsky (22:07.4), first year Nick Scardigno (22:33.1), sophomore Jacob Gaba (22:34.1), sophomore Scott Kaiser (22:36.9), and junior Jacob Landsberg (22:53.9) rounded out the top 30 runners to reach the finish.
First year Ryan Quenemoen (22:57.4), senior William Hillegas (22:58.3), senior Steve Gan (23:04.1), first year Seamus Flannery (23:18.8), junior Jack Fanikos (23:39.9), and first year Kennedy Mutai (23:58.2) crossed in 31st through 36th, respectively. Sophomore Colin Riley (24:10.2) finished 38th while first year Michael Franco crossed in 40th overall (24:52).
Men's cross country will now begin to ramp up its preparations for next weekend's Centennial Conference Championship, which are slated for November 2 at 11 a.m. The conference championship will be held at Gettysburg for the second time in the last three seasons.