COLLEGEVILLE, Pa. - The Haverford College men's track & field team brought a larger than expected grouping to the Frank Colden Invitational at Ursinus on Saturday, after the planned trip to the Tufts Cupid Challenge was canceled due to weather conditions in New England. With the full squad in tow, Haverford posted some strong marks at the Colden meet, as the season began to turn towards its final act.
The mile grouping was highlighted by a standout performance from Jamie Moreland as the junior made his impact felt in a big way, clocking a personal-best time of 4:10.26, the fourth-best time in Division III so far this season and the 10th fastest in Haverford program history. Moreland's time is the fastest in the Centennial by over two seconds and is tops in the Metro Region by more than five seconds. The time bodes well for Moreland's second consecutive qualification to nationals, as he was named an All-American in the mile after the shortened 2020 campaign.
A large mile grouping also saw first year Reza Eshghi establish a stellar 4:19.49 personal best while Ryan Kredell (4:19.72), Nico Tripeny (4:21.00), Charlie Ferruson (4:21.05), and Miles Colescott (4;30.05) all notched top 10 finishes. The marks from Eshghi, Kredell, Tripeny and Ferguson are all within the top 10 in the Centennial Conference so far this season. Nathan Leighninger made his season debut, clocking a 4:36.08 ahead of Ryan Quenemoen (4:36.77), Scott Kaiser (4:36.85), Michael Franco (4:38.93), and Sammy Schindel (4:39.51) as the group all posted top 20 finishes.
In the 3,000 meters, Peter LaRochelle kept up his strong start to the season with an 8:53.20 finish for second overall and a new personal best. Also competing in the 3,000 meters were Matt Denton (9:10.74) and Jay Whitesell (10:26.37).
A 4x400 meter relay squad of Caesar Dai, Seawon Park, Matthew Ruiz and Jacob Foster clocked a finish of 4:02.20, while the 60 meter relay was highlighted by Jonathan Hill clocking a 7.36 in the prelims and a 7.42 in the final for a seventh place finish. Amon-Ra Kamit was 20th in the 60-meter dash (7.78). Hill again impressed in the 200, finishing third overall (23.45) while Kamit was 24th (25.43) and Matthew Ruiz was 38th (29.42). Ruiz also contested the 400 meters, finishing 33rd (1:06.33).
The 800 meter grouping was paced by Jeffrey Allen logging a fifth place showing (2:00.62), ahead of Reed Solomon in ninth (2:04.11). Caesar Dai (2:12.68), Sam Diaz (2:13.47), Kieran McDonnell (2:15.41) and Seawon Park (2:17.66). In field events, Ethan Gadra was the second place finisher with a mark of 4.10 meters (13 feet, 5.25 inches), while Nathan Ma logged a fifth place finish in the long jump with a 5.75 meter mark (18 feet, 10.5 inches). Ravi Eaton was third in the triple jump, with a mark of 12.51 meters (41 feet, 0.5 inches).
In the shot put, Multi specialist Cyrus Slavin threw a distance of 9.44 meters (30 feet, 11.75 inches) while Juan Miguel Pinto Diaz threw 7.69 meters (25 feet, 2.75 meters). Slavin tossed 8.88 meters (29 feet, 1.75 meters) in the weight throw, while Pinto Diaz logged a mark of 8.82 meters (28 feet, 11.25 meters). Ethan Ezray competed in the weight throw only, logging a toss of 4.44 meters (14 feet, 7 inches).
The men's track & field team will next be in action on Friday, February 11 at the Fastrack National Invitational. The event is slated to begin at 1 p.m. at the Ocean Breeze Complex on Staten Island, N.Y.