COLLEGEVILLE, Pa. - The Haverford College men's track & field team wrapped up the Centennial Conference championships on Sunday at Ursinus College with a performance highlighted by a gold medal from Jamie Moreland in the mile run. The Fords finished fourth overall in the two-day event, recording 71.5 points.
Moreland set a new Centennial Conference Championships meet record, clocking a 4:11.47, almost three seconds faster than the previous meet record of 4:14.03 set by Charlie Marquardt '16. In addition to Moreland, the second and third place finishers from Johns Hopkins also eclipsed the previous meet record in a blazing fast final heat that captivated the sizable crowd at Ursinus. Moreland is the 25th Centennial Conference mile champion in program history and the fourth consecutive winner from Haverford, reprising his title from the 2020 event.
Reza Eshghi was also a scorer in the mile for the Fords, finishing seventh in 4:21.77. Nathan Leighninger finished 12th, just outside of the scoring in 4:26.54. Matt Katz (4:35.73) and Evan Daniels (4:35.73) crossed in tandem in 19th and 20th.
A medal-winning performance also came in the 4x800 meter relay, as the team of Matthew Denton, Reed Solomon, Scott Kaiser, and Jeffrey Allen crossed in third (8:05.27). All four entrants will earn honorable mention All-Centennial by virtue of the strong finish. The 4x400 meter relay squad of Jacob Foster, Michael Franco, Leighninger, and Ravi Eaton crossed in eighth overall with a time of 3:38.82.
Coming back strong after a stumble in the triple jump, Eaton notched a memorable scoring performance in the long jump, recording a career best 6.39 meters (20"-11.75") , a mark that is also good for the ninth-best performance in program history. Nathan Ma was 15th (5.91m, 19'-4.75") and Foster was 16th (5.88m, 19'-03.50") Alex Reichard matched his mark from the prelims with a 7.26 in the 60 meter dash, good for fifth place.
A bevy of standout performances in the 3,000 meters was highlighted by Ryan Kredell crossing in fourth (8:33.78), four seconds before Max Brelig in fifth (8:37.67) while Nico Tripeny was sixth (8:39) and Peter Buckley also scored for the Fords in eighth (8:43.03) as the Fords picked up 13 points from the event. Eshghi narrowly missed the podium in the 800 meters, recording a 1:59.66 for fifth place overall while Charlie Ferguson also finished within the scoring, crossing in eighth (2:01.29).
With the NCAA indoor championships slated for two weekends from now, Moreland figures to be in strong contention for a slot in the mile, as he ranked eighth in that event nationally entering conference championship weekend. The top 20 declared athletes in individual events and the top 12 relays are selected for the championships.
The final team standings finished in the following order:
1. Johns Hopkins 201.50
2. Ursinus 170.70
3. McDaniel 72.50
4. Haverford 71.50
5. Dickinson 66.20
6. Franklin & Marshall 46.40
7. Muhlenberg 46
8. Swarthmore 38
9. Gettysburg 24.20