ALLENTOWN, Pa. — The Haverford College men's and women's outdoor track & field teams captured four titles Saturday afternoon during the second of three days of competition at the 2011 Centennial Conference Outdoor Track & Field Championship Meet hosted by Muhlenberg College.
The initial championship for Haverford came from the day's opening individual event when Andy Bennett posted a distance of 6.89 meters (22 feet, 7 1/4 inches) on his first attempt in the long jump competition. His jump remained at the top of the list over the rest of the event to win the championship.
The men received another first place in a field event when Tom Mahoney cleared a height of 1.80 meters (5-10.75) in the high jump.
The final event of the afternoon produced the third Centennial title for the men as the quartet of Eric Arnold, Andrew Golato, Ivo Milic-Strkalj and Tim Schoch won the 4x800 relay with a winning time of 7 minutes, 44.97 seconds.
The Haverford women picked up their lone championship of the day in the long jump where Kylie Lipinski soared to the win with a leap of 5.35 meters (17-6.75). Teammates Zoe Welch (5.13/16-10.0) and Emma Kornetsky (4.99/16-4.5) also scored for the Fords placing third and eighth, respectively.
Both the men and women earned points in the 3,000 meter steeplechase early in the day.
Lucus Fuentes, Ben Siqueiros and Jake Koffer finished second, fifth and sixth, respectively for the men, and Fuentes' time of 9:23.64 surpassed the provisional standard for the NCAA Division III championship meet.
Andrea Tocci finished fourth and Rachel Potter was eighth in the women's steeplechase.
Both squads had solid performances in several of Saturday's trials events whose finals will take place Sunday.
Christina Neilson is in position to pull off the trifecta after posting second place times in the 100 (12.66 seconds), 200 (26.03) and 400 (58.76). Zoe Welch (eighth, 13.04) will join Neilson in the final of the 100.
Also racing in finals Sunday will be Hannah Davis (second, 1:05.70) in the 400 hurdles, and Sara Hess (sixth, 2:19.11) and Sally Weathers (eighth, 2:19.63) in the 800.
The men swept the first three spots in the 800 trials as Schoch, Milic-Strkalj and Golato posted the three-fastest times in the event Saturday. Two more Fords, Richard Dowlat in the 400 and Greg Krause in the 400 hurdles, also moved on to Sunday's event finals after day two's prelims.
With only eight events scored on the men's side, the Fords sit in second place with 74 points heading into day three. Dickinson College leads with 89 points.
The women have accumulated 34.5 points in seven scored events and