HAVERFORD, Pa. - The No. 18 ranked Haverford College men's cross country team topped the Division III leaderboard at its annual Main Line Invitational on Friday afternoon, scoring 54 points for a second-place finish in the first intercollegiate test of the season at the Alumni Cross Country Course.
Division I Penn took the overall title in the four-mile race, while Haverford easily outpaced squads from conference foes Swarthmore and Muhlenberg, along with a grouping from Widener. Greg Morgan '19 won the overall individual title, finishing in 19:55.7. Morgan was the only runner to post a sub-20 minute time on the afternoon.
On an ideal late afternoon for racing, the Fords posted a bevy of top times, with senior co-captain Sam McCalpin finishing ninth overall (20:23.4) to lead the pack. Sophomore Peter Buckley was the second Haverford runner to cross the finish line, taking 17th place overall in a time of 20:39.4. First-year Ryan Kredell (20:41.5), sophomore Max Brelig (20:43.0), and senior Conor Madden (20:48.7) also scored for Haverford. The Fords scorers averaged a time of 20:40, 30 seconds faster than third-place Swarthmore.
First-year Aaron Bratt (20:57.9) and junior Matt Katz (21:07.6) both finished within the top 25, while first-year Charlie Ferguson (21:16.4), senior co-captain James Barker (21:16.6), and senior David Watt (21:25.1) finished 28th through 30th, respectively.
Also crossing within the top 50 were first-year Nathaniel Leighninger (21:31.4), sophomore Nico Tripeny (21:41.0), senior co-captain Hiro Kawakatsu (21:44.2), junior Simon Perales (21:56.1), sophomore Amos Karlsen (21:58.1), and sophomore Jeffrey Allen (22:06.6).
A selection of Haverford runners will next compete on Friday, September 27 at the Dan Talbot Open at Rose Tree Park in Media, Pa. The full squad will return to action on Saturday, October 5 for the prestigious Paul Short Run, hosted by Lehigh University. The meet will serve as a key benchmark as both nationally and regionally ranked squads will descend upon Bethlehem, Pa. for one of the largest meets in the nation. The Fords have finished as the top Division III team in the meet's "gold race" in each of the last two seasons.