CENTER VALLEY, Pa. - The Haverford College men's cross country team has qualified for the NCAA Division III Championship for the 24th consecutive season by virtue of a second place finish in the Mideast Regional race on the campus of DeSales University on Saturday. The Fords were only outlasted by Centennial Conference foe Johns Hopkins, who took the regional crown to earn the other automatic qualifier into the NCAA meet. The Fords scored 65 points, just one place behind the Blue Jays.
Haverford finished with an average time of 25:23, a second faster than the 25:24 of Johns Hopkins. The Fords spread of 39 seconds was ten seconds longer than Hopkins 29 second spread.
Junior Henry Woods again paced the Fords; with a third place overall finish in 25:05. Ryan Herlihy finished in eighth overall with a time of 25:13. Graham Peet was 12th with a time of 25:22 and Jimmy Gorman crossed in 14th in 25:28. Greg Morgan was the 28th place overall finisher in a time of 25:44. By virtue of their top-35 finishes Woods, Herlihy, Peet, Gorman and Morgan were named All-Mideast Region. Woods, Peet and Gorman picked up their second straight All-Region plaudit whiole Herlihy and Morgan netted their first.
Crossing in the sixth position in 37th place for the Fords was James Stadler (26:02), while Charlie Hale crossed in seventh with a 46th place overall finish in 26:20.
Haverford finished ahead of third place Carnegie Mellon, who was the No. 1 team in the Mideast Regional rankings entering the postseason. York (Pa.) finished in fourth while Dickinson finished fifth. Ernie Pitone and Will McDermott from Widener finished in first and second overall, but the Pride settled for a sixth overall finish. Muhlenberg notched a 9th place finish while Franklin & Marshall posted a 13th place finish to round out the Centennial schools in the top 15.
The No. 15 nationally ranked Fords will next be in action at the aformentioned NCAA Championship meet a week from today in Louisville, Ky. The Fords finished 12th in the nation a season ago and claimed the national championship in 2010. The race at Tom Sawyer Park is slated to begin at noon. Stay tuned to HaverfordAthletics.com for the latest information on the national championship.