COLLEGEVILLE, Pa. -- The Haverford College men's indoor track and field team turned a successful first day of the Centennial Conference Championship on Saturday at Ursinus College. The afternoon was highlighted by Nicholas Gandolfo-Lucia taking home the gold in the 5,000 meter distance with a final time of 15:22.58.

The Haverford senior entered the event seeded third, behind teammate Dylan Verner-Crist who finished the race in third place (15:31.35) to help the Fords' cause. Haverford gathered 24 total points in the event with five total runners finishing in the top eight. Charlie Hale (15:36.34) and Sam Fujimori (15:36.68) finished fifth and sixth while Evan Hamilton (15:38.84) came in eighth.

In the heptathlon, Jeffrey Ainsley sits in second place after the first day. The Haverford senior got things started by winning the first portion of the event, the 60 meter hurdles. His time (7.40 seconds) edged his Johns Hopkins counterpart by one hundredth of a second. Ainsley finished second in the long jump (6.12m), fifth in the shot put (10.71m), and tied for first in the high jump (10.92m). The heptathlon continues tomorrow with the 60m hurdles and the pole vault.

In the first men's event of the day, freshman Greg Van Aken set a new personal best in the pole vault at 3.80 meters, topping his previous best of 3.65 from the Keogh Invitational. His seventh place finish put Haverford on the board with two points.

Dorvil Gabriel also claimed six points for the Fords with a third place finish in the triple jump (13.03m).

Action will conclude Sunday at 9:00 a.m., beginning with the shot put. After tomorrow's events, several of Haverford's athletes will look to continue their season at the NCAA Division III 2016 Indoor Championship on Mar. 11-12 in Grinell, Iowa.