GLASSBORO, N.J. – The No. 20 Haverford College men's cross country team appears to be peaking at the right time and should see a climb in the national rankings as the Fords placed fourth in a field of 43 teams at the Rowan Inter-Regional Border Battle.
No. 1 SUNY Geneseo won the event with a score of 71 points, while No. 5 MIT was second with 127 points. RPI – ranked No. 11 in the latest Division III Poll – finished third with 168 points, just ahead of Haverford's 184 points. The Fords moved up from ninth place as a team at the 2,000 meter mark and were beating RPI at the four mile mark before settling for fourth place on the course which measured 7,800 meters.
Although unable to hold off the No. 11 team in the country, Haverford did claim wins against No. 13 St. Lawrence and got revenge from a defeat two weekends ago at the hands of No. 18 New York University. The Fords were also six spots ahead of Centennial Conference rival Johns Hopkins in the final team standings.
A tight pack with a spread of less than 50 seconds separating the first through fifth runners on the team helped Haverford climb the standings throughout the race. Henry Woods was the team's top finisher as he placed 15th overall with a time of 23:56.7. Jimmy Gorman was second on the team and 23rd in the field as he crossed the line in a time of 24:13.9.
Haverford's third through fifth runners moved drastically up in the pack throughout the afternoon as many were outside of the top 100 at the 2,000 meter mark. Ryan Herlihy rallied for a 31st place finish in a time of 24:22.7. Classmate's Greg Morgan (24:37.5) and Graham Peet (24:46.3) followed that lead and finished in 52nd and 65th, respectively.
Not far behind them were Haverford's sixth and seventh finishers in Dylan Gearinger (24:51.3) and Charlie Hale (24:55.0). Gearinger and Hale were 71st and 80th in the race. James Stadler (25:23.5), Peter Kurtz (25:53.8) and Julian Schneider (25:57.8) also competed in the varsity race for the Fords.
Haverford placed fifth overall in the open race with six runners among the top 40 finishers. That group was led to the finish by Matt Willig in a time of 25:26.2 as he recorded an 11th place showing.
Men's cross country will now be at home the next two weekends. The Fords will host the Haverford Invitational next Friday with the men set to start at 5 p.m. The Centennial Conference Championship will also be held at Haverford in two weekends.