WINNECONNE, Wis. – On a cold but clear day at the Lake Breeze Golf Course, the Haverford College men's cross country team raced to a podium finish for the seventh time in program history, taking home team hardware for the first time since the 2012 season with a 4th place finish. The poised performance also ensured that Haverford would place within the top 20 teams in the nation for the 26th straight season.
Recording a total of 213 points and registering a team average time of 25:12, the Fords were the top finisher among Mideast Regional foes, easily outpacing ninth place finisher Johns Hopkins (308 points), and 18th place Carnegie Mellon (495 points). Haverford jumped four places from last season's eighth-place finish at Principia College.
Three All-America finishers paced Haverford as seniors Graham Peet (16th), Greg Morgan (18th), and Ryan Herlihy (29th), all finished within the top 40 individuals on Saturday afternoon. The three All-America finishes represented the first time that Haverford has placed three within the criteria for All-America designation since the 2011 national runner-up squad. The 2010 national championship team also garnered three All-Americans.
After a false start, the race got under way about five minutes late, but the Haverford strategy was clear from the gun as the Fords were content to build throughout the race. Haverford was in seventh at the 2.3k split, briefly pulled into sixth at the 3k split, and jumped to a steady fifth place slot before pulling past Wartburg and onto the podium in the final kilometer.
Peet capped an illustrious cross-country career with his first All-America finish after a Mideast Region Athlete of the Year award a season ago. Peet's time of 24:49.3 easily eclipsed his race from a season ago, and his 16th place finish was 34 spots better than his 50th place finish last season. Peet scored 12 for Haverford, providing the low stick.
Greg Morgan continued his steady rise with an 18th place finish in 24:50.1, sticking tight with Peet and obliterating his 172nd place finish from 2017, scoring 14 points. Herlihy was 29th in 24:54.3; placing 27 spots higher than his performance a season ago as the steadiness of the top three allowed the Fords some security as the pack began to separate. Herlihy's run added just 21 points to the team total.
Junior Sam McCalpin scored 61 in his second trip to the national meet, finishing in 85th with a time of 25:30, 32 spots better than his nationals debut last season. Making his national debut, Centennial Conference Rookie of the Year Jamie Moreland proved to be a vital fifth scorer with a 147th place finish in 25:51.8, scoring 105. First year Peter Buckley finished in 238th in 26:30.9, while Junior David Watt crossed in 263rd in 27:12.6 to round out the Haverford entrants, as the pair were each making their first trip to nationals.
North Central (Ill.) took the national championship for the 19th time in program history with 43 points. Washington-St. Louis (110 points), and Wisconsin La Crosse (127 points) joined the Fords on the podium. Dhruvil Patel of North Central won the individual championship.
WINNECONNE, WI – The Johns Hopkins men's cross country team capped one of the great seasons in school history with a ninth-place finish at the 2018 NCAA Division III Championships Saturday afternoon at Lake Breeze Golf Club. The Blue Jays totaled 308 points to earn their ninth-place finish, which ranks as the second-highest finish in school history. The 308 points are the lowest total Johns Hopkins has ever posted at the NCAAs.
Top-ranked North Central won the team title with 43 points and was followed by Washington University (MO) (110 points), Wisconsin-La Crosse (127), Haverford (213) and Wartburg (227) in the top five. The Blue Jays finished just eight points behind Williams in the battle for eighth and were just 10 points behind Pomona Pitzer, which placed seventh with 298 points.
Sophomore Jared Pangallozzi placed 12th overall (10th among scoring runners) to lead the way for the Blue Jays. Pangallozzi, the highest-placing non-junior or senior in the race and the only freshman or sophomore to place in the top 15, clocked in at 24:44.7 and earns All-America honors with his 12th-place finish, which is the highest in school history. Johns Hopkins Hall of Famer John Robinson placed 14th at the 1991 NCAA Championships for the previous best showing by a Blue Jay at the NCAAs.
"Jared simply was awesome today," Johns Hopkins head coach Bobby Van Allen noted. "He got out well - as did most of our guys - and made the move early to stick to the front of the pack."
Pangallozzi stayed with the lead pack for a majority of the race and was within four seconds of the eventual winner - Dhruvil Patel of North Central - through 5.6K. Patel would grab the individual crown by just over five seconds and Pangallozzi was in a pack of 14 runners that finished within 16 seconds of each other after Patel crossed the line.
While Pangallozzi led the way, the Blue Jays earned their ninth-place finish on the strength of their four remaining scoring runners finishing between 65th and 81st among non-individual entries (individuals who qualified do not figure into the team scoring).
Senior Oliver Hickson (93rd overall, 65th in the team scoring), sophomore Connor Delahanty (105th, 72nd) and juniors Andrew King (114th, 80th) and Vipul Bhat (115th, 81st) rounded out the Blue Jays' scoring runners behind Pangallozzi.
Hickson clocked in at 25:33.7, while Delahanty was just four seconds behind at 25:37.8. King (25:41.2) and Bhat (25:41.5) closed strong to create a spread of just 56.8 seconds between the Blue Jays' top five on the day.
"The guys kept fighting after getting separated and got back together with one another to form just an eight-second gap between our second and fifth runners with all cracking the top 100 scoring positions of the meet," Van Allen added. "We improved eight spots in the team standings from last year and three of our top five will return next year. This was our second-highest finish ever and one we will continue to build on."
Rounding out the seven-man contingent for Johns Hopkins at the championship were seniors Alex Doran and Scott Pourshalchi. Doran clocked in at 26:01 and Pourshalchi was just behind at 26:08.8.