HAVERFORD, Pa. – The Haverford College women's cross country had one final tune-up before the postseason gets underway as the Fords hosted the Haverford Invitational on Friday afternoon. With only a limited number of entrants as the conference championship is on the immediate horizon, Haverford edged Bi-Co neighbor Bryn Mawr by a 22-37 team score.
Griffin Kaulbach was the overall winner with a time of 18:46.6 on the three-mile course. She finished 28 seconds clear of her closest competitor on the Alumni Cross Country Course. Natalia Cordon also broke the 20-minute mark as she placed third in the field of 25 finishers with a time of 19:30.2.
Haverford swept the fifth through seventh positions to round out its scoring runners with Faizah Khan (20:33.1), Annie Connolly-Sporing (20:57.5), and Eva White (21:10.7) claiming those positions. Connolly-Sporing and White both crossed the line with personal best times while Khan was competing in her first-ever race for the Fords.
Lauren Tanel (21:19.5) and Sophie Schleifer (21:29.5) gave Haverford seven of the top 10 finishers overall to round out the team's top seven. Rhea Chandran (22:37.2) and Annemarie Wood (22:49.1) each turned in personal best times with their respective 18th and 19th place finishes. The top 25 finishers in the race were each presented with a t-shirt at the finish line with each of Haverford's nine runners finishing among that group.
Women's cross country will now turn its attention to the postseason as the 2019 Centennial Conference Championship will be held next Saturday, November 2 at Gettysburg. With this being an odd-numbered year, the women's race will start at 12 p.m. noon as the men will kick off the championship meet with their 11 a.m. start.