HAVERFORD, Pa. – The Haverford College women's outdoor track & field team has been picked to finish third in the Centennial Conference in the annual voting among head coaches. The Fords, who are coming off a second place finish at the indoor championships, received 67 voting points in the poll. Coaches were not allowed to vote for their own teams.
Defending conference champion Johns Hopkins was picked first in the poll with 81 points and nine first-place votes. The Fords' 67 points were just slightly edged out by Dickinson as the Red Devils received the other first-place vote and a total of 69 points. Swarthmore and Gettysburg rounded out the top five teams in the preseason voting.
Haverford has placed either first or second in the conference during 13 of the Centennial's 24 seasons. Haverford has placed third an additional six times. The Fords have won five outdoor conference titles as a team, with their most recent coming during a stretch of four straight years from 2006-09.
The team has had at least one individual conference champion in each of the conference's 24 previous outdoor championships. Katie Sullivan (1,500 meters) and Claire Sargent (shot put) are both returning conference champions during the outdoor season. Nicole Giannetti (steeplechase), Emily Anderson (discus), and Sullivan (800 meters) are also returning after garnering all-conference accolades last spring in those events. Sullivan and Giannetti both represented Haverford at the NCAA Division III Outdoor Track & Field Championships last spring.
The Fords will open the outdoor season on Friday, March 30 and Saturday, March 31 at Widener's Danny Curran Invitational. The 2018 Centennial Conference Outdoor Track & Field Championships will be hosted by Ursinus from Friday, May 4 through Sunday, May 6.