HAVERFORD, Pa. - The Haverford College men's track & field team hosted its second of two indoor home meets, the annual Keogh Invitational inside Alumni Field House on Saturday afternoon. The Fords captured the event title, with a strong showing from several competitors leading them to 102 total points, edging out conference foe Swarthmore, who tallied 99.
Senior Matthew Denton won the Eddie Papalia ('05) Memorial 800m run, crossing the finish line in an indoor-best 1:56.11. The event was named in memory of Papalia, a three-time track & field All-American who graduated from Haverford in 2005. Papalia passed away in June of 2012, and the race has been held in his memory since the 2013-14 season. Owen Bluman was the second Haverford runner to cross the finish line, in fifth overall (2:02.41), while Reed Solomon finished sixth (2:02.99), and Gopal Patel was 13th (personal-best 2:08.42).
Last year's winner, Micah Lachman, participated in the mile this time around and finished third overall in 4:27.13. Seamus Fraser was fourth in 4:27.56, while William Harris (16th, 4:42.50), Torin Pelton-Flavin (19th, 4:44.79), Seawon Park (27th, 4:59.17), and Rowan Shigeno (30th, personal-best 5:10.85) rounded out the Haverford contingent.
In field events, Jory Lee stood out with event titles in both the long jump and the triple jump. In the long jump, Lee leaped 6.44 meters (21 feet, 1.5 inches) for a new personal best. The mark is also the 10th-best in program history. In the triple jump, Lee cleared 13.59 meters (44 feet, seven inches), his second-best performance outside his career-best at the Villanova Invitational in January of 2023.
Kevin Villafane participated in the pole vault, finishing seventh to pick up two points for the Fords and clearing 2.45 meters (8 feet and one-half inch). A trio of shot put competitors were in action for Haverford Saturday, with Tiger Wang notching a 15th place finish with a toss of 10.06 meters (33 feet, one-quarter inch). Rocky Luan was 16th with a career-best throw of 9.45 meters (31 feet), while Jonah Levine was 18th, clearing 8.89 meters (29 feet, 2 inches).
Jonathan Hill captured the 200 meters with a time of 23.06 to put 10 points in the Haverford column, while Zenas Boamah was the fifth-place finisher in 24.30, and Jason Mayo logged a sixth-place showing in 24.53. Just outside the scoring, Jonah Hoffman-Weitsman ran to a 10th place finish (career-best 25.82), while Villafane (26.62) and Matthew Ruiz (career-best 26.74) crossed 12th and 13th, respectively.
Mayo was the fifth-place finisher in the 60 meters (career-best 7.36), while Boamah crossed sixth (career-best 7.41), and Boahen Kwakye was 18th (8.08). Leo Gordon ran the 400 meters for the Fords, finishing in 58.79 for 11th, while Ruiz also took to the track for the event, logging a personal-best 59.17 for 12th overall.
The 3,000 meters saw a pair of Haverford runners compete, with Cullen Worth finishing ninth overall (9:58.63), while Xingyun Yang crossed 10th (personal-best 10:04.84). The 5,000 meters was highlighted by a second-place finish from Deven Abrams (personal-best 17:11.58), while Kieran McDonnell crossed sixth (18:11.56).
In the relays, the 4x200-meter team of Hill, Boamah, Mayo, and Vir Goyal took a third-place finish in 1:35.15, narrowly missing a spot in the all-time program top 10. The 4x400-meter team of Solomon, Bluman, Patel, and Ravi Eaton was fourth overall (4:05.05).
The Fords will now return to action next weekend at the Centennial Conference Championships, slated for February 24 and 25 at Franklin & Marshall. The action gets underway at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday with the weight throw, while the majority of individual track events are contested Sunday.