INDIANAPOLIS – The NCAA has announced its selections to the 2012 Division III outdoor track & field championship meet in Clarement, Calif., and seven Haverford College athletes will be making the trek to the West Coast for the event which runs from May 24-26.
Seniors Andrew Golato, Tim Schoch, Faraz Sohail and Andrew Sturner will be joined by juniors Jordan Schilit and Peter Kissin and sophomore Brian Sokas on the cross country trip.
The trio of Schilit, Kissin and Sohail qualified for the 5,000 meter run which will be a timed final event on Saturday, May 26. Schilit will enter the championship with the second-fastest time, 13 minutes, 59.21 seconds, of all qualifiers. Kissin (14:29.66) heads into the meet seeded 18th with Sohail (14:30.97) seeded 20th.
Sokas and Sturner, seeded 18th and 20th, respectively, will represent the Fords in the 10,000, a timed final event on the championship's opening day.
The 1,500 will run its preliminary heats on Thursday with Schoch's time of 3:48.98 entering the event as the fifth-fastest of 20 entrants. The 1,500 final, comprised of nine runners from the preliminary's two heats, will take place on Saturday.
Golato owns the 14th-fastest time in the field of 20 for the 800 meter run. Three preliminary heats will occur on Friday with the final, made up of nine racers, taking place on Saturday.
The seven entrants from Haverford -- the only male qualifiers from the Centennial Conference -- are the most for the D-III championship meet in the history of the program.
Three of the seven -- Golato, Schilit and Schoch -- will be making repeat appearances on the national track stage. Schilit and Schoch both earned All-American honors at the 2012 indoor championship, Schoch was a 2011 outdoor all-American in the 1,500, and both Schoch and Golato were part of an all-American distance medley relay squad at the 2011 indoor championship.
Sokas and Sturner, 2011 all-American's in cross country along with Schilit, as well as Sohail and Kissin will be making their initial trip to track nationals.
The group of seven Haverford qualifiers are coming off an outdoor conference championship three weekends ago. The outdoor title completed a sweep as the Fords also won the indoor championship after running to the cross country title in the fall.
NCAA 2012 Division III men's outdoor track & field qualifiers (complete listing)