Skip to navigation Skip to content Skip to footer

Men's Indoor T&F Wins Collegeville Classic

Jeffrey Ainsley
Jeffrey Ainsley

COLLEGEVILLE, Pa. – With three individual winners, the Haverford College men's indoor track and field team won the Collegeville Classic hosted by Ursinus College on Friday evening.

The Fords scored 90 points, 15 more than second place Essex County College. Centennial Conference rivals, Muhlenberg and Ursinus, were sixth and eighth, respectively.

Freshman Liam Lynch nabbed his second career individual title, crossing the finish line first in the 400m. His 50.50 is the 13th fastest in all of Division III at the time of this release and is tied for the fifth best in program history. For the second straight week, sophomore Tyler Fong won the mile event, sprinting to a 4:27.00. Senior Jeffrey Ainsley had one of the top times in the nation (13th), winning the 60m hurdles (8.42). It's the senior's seventh career indoor hurdles crown.

Lynch also won his individual heat in the 200m (23.27) to place fifth overall and garner four points for the Fords. Freshman Scott Pollara tied for the best time in his heat (24.74).

Fong's pace in the mile was nine seconds quicker than last week, which led him to being named Centennial Conference Track Athlete of the Week. Freshman Chris Goings posted a top-five finish (4:29.54) in the event. Junior Julian Schneider (4:31.50) and sophomore Marcelo Jauregui-Volpe (4:32.37) rounded out the top ten.

Haverford had three runners in the 800m register points. Sophomore Henry Woods was one-tenth of a second shy of his personal best (1:59.35), good for fifth. His teammate, freshman Peter Kurtz, was right behind him in sixth (2:00.11) while senior Ryan Gooding was seventh (2:00.54).

Head coach Tom Donnelly's squad had each of its 10 runners in the 3,000m among the top 14 finishers, highlighted by six inside the top ten. Senior Nicholas Gandolfo-Lucia was the speediest Ford, setting a personal best (8:44.70). Senior Jeffrey Duncan (8:49.49), junior Jimmy Gorman (8:55.75), senior Sam Fujimori (8:56.15) and senior Dylan Verner-Crist (8:56.57) also secured points for Haverford.

In the field events, Ainsley tallied six points for the Fords, tying for third place in the high jump (1.80m). Freshman Greg Van Aken was sixth in the pole vault (3.50m). Senior Dorvil Gabriel had a career best 12.52m in the triple jump and senior Robert Parry threw the furthest distance in the shot put (12.36m) for the Fords. 

Men's indoor track & field will return to the Alumni Field House next Saturday as hosts of the McElligott Invitational on January 30. Action on that day is scheduled to get underway at 11 a.m. The Fords will be at home three of the next four weekends before returning to Ursinus for the Centennial Conference Indoor Track & Field Championship at the end of February.