ROCHESTER, N.Y.- On the first day of the NCAA Division III Outdoor Track & Field Championships at the Polisseni Track and Field Complex, a pair of Haverford seniors put forth impressive performances to open up action at St. John Fisher University.
Senior Jamie Moreland earned direct qualification to the finals of the men's 1,500 meters for the second consecutive outdoor season, finishing second in the second of two preliminary races with a time of 3:48.64.
Moreland, the sixth-place finisher in the finals a season ago en-route to an All-America award, crossed in a photo finish with Matthew Lecky of RPI, but ultimately Lecky toed the line just ahead of Moreland, crossing in 3:48.62 to win the heat.
Joining Moreland in Saturday's final will be Lecky, Ryan Wilson of MIT, Scott Sikorski of Rochester, Sam Llaneza of Lynchburg, Justin Krause of Wisconsin-Whitewater, Steven Potter of Wisconsin - Oshkosh, Travis Martin of Trinity (Conn.), Jack Rosencrans of Pomona-Pitzer, Colin McLaughlin of Carnegie Mellon, Cal Yackin of Otterbein, and Ian Kelly of Luther College.
The 1,500-meter final will begin at 1:25 p.m. ET on Saturday afternoon (May 27) and live video and live timing are available via NCAA.com
In the finals-only 10,000 meters, Ryan Kredell notched a 10th place finish with a new personal best (29:32.89), in what turned out to be a blazing fast race with some of the most accomplished distance runners in Division III history competing under the lights on a perfect night in Rochester.
With Alex Phillip of John Carroll and Ethan Gregg of Wisconsin- LaCrosse taking things out on an extremely fast pace, history was sure to be made in the event, with a large pack of runners from places three through 20 jockeying for position through the early laps with Phillip and Gregg with a sizable lead.
Kredell hung tough with that main pack, at many times firmly in third to anchor the grouping before a late kick knocked the senior out of the scoring places in the final 2,000 meters. Phillip eventually took the victory with an NCAA championship record of 28:37.89.
The Geneva, Illinois product will wrap up his Haverford career on Saturday, looking for another All-America certificate to match his cross country honor from the fall season, as the 5,000 meter run is slated for 4 p.m. Kredell enters as the 15th seed (14:06.89) overall.