Haverford at the NCAA Championships
HAVERFORD, Pa. – Haverford seniors Greg Morgan and Graham Peet will represent Haverford at the 2019 NCAA Division III Outdoor Track & Field Championships at the SPIRE Institute in Geneva, Ohio this weekend, as the pair will compete in the 5,000 meters, and 10,000 meters, respectively.
Peet will kick things off for the Fords on Thursday afternoon at approximately 10:45 a.m. in the finals-only 10,000 meters. Peet enters as the sixth-seeded athlete, as his seed time of 30:06.59 was run at the Danny Curran Invitational on the first day of the outdoor season. The time is the seventh-fastest individual mark in program history. The Centennial Conference champion and the Mideast Region's top performer in the event, Peet will see his competition come largely from other entrenched senior distance stalwarts from around the nation, a grouping highlighted by top-seeded Dhruvil Patel of North Central (Ill.), Grant O'Connor of RPI, Darin Lau of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, and Andy Reischling of Pomona-Pitzer. In total, 13 of the 20 entrants in the race are in their senior seasons.
Peet is the first 10,000 meters qualifier for Haverford since Joel Christian in 2015. In total, the Fords have had eight All-America finishers in the distance, including three individual national championships. JB Haglund won the 2002 event, while Seamus McElligott captured back-to-back crowns in 1990 and 1991. Chris Stadler was the last All-America finisher, taking home a runner-up nod in 2014. Last season, Peet finished third in the steeplechase, picking up All-America honors for the first time.
Morgan will look to capture the finals-only 5,000-meter crown in the outdoor campaign after taking home the 3,000 meters during the indoor national championships in Boston in March. In contrast to Peet's Thursday start, Haverford's Varsity Cup winner will race in the final individual event of the three-day championships, at 3:25 p.m. on Saturday.
Morgan enters with the fourth seed in the event, after his region-best 14:20.29 at the Penn Relays last month. The aforementioned Patel, Reischling, O'Connor, and Lau will all attempt to complete the distance double as Morgan is the highest-seeded entrant in the event that is focusing on just one distance in Northeast Ohio this weekend. In total, 11 of the entrants in the event are seniors.
Haverford has placed 10 All-Americans in the 5,000 meters, with Stadler capturing the national title in the event in 2014. Haglund and McElligott also added the 5,000-meter crown to their 10,000-meter titles. Henry Woods represented Haverford in the distance in each of the last two years, narrowly missing out on All-America finishes in each race. Morgan will look to become the first Haverford track athlete to capture indoor and outdoor national titles in the same year since Karl Paranya won both the indoor and outdoor 1,500 meters in 1997. Last season, Morgan was an All-America finisher in the 1,500 meters in La Crosse, Wisconsin.
The Haverford program has now seen 137 individual qualifiers to the national meet, including 69 Division III All-Americans and 15 national champions.
Live video and live results of the NCAA Championships will be available online through the championship central page above.