WEST CHESTER, Pa. and LEWISBURG, Pa. — The Haverford men's track & field team turned in several strong performances this weekend across a pair of meets, with a large contingent heading to the Bill Butler Invitational at West Chester, while Peter LaRochelle competed under the lights at the Bison Classic at Bucknell.
LaRochelle capped off a memorable day for Haverford men's track & field, as the senior competed with several Division I and Division II runners in the 10,000 meters. LaRochelle finished in seventh place with a new personal best time of 29:37.96. The blazing time now puts LaRochelle third in Haverford program history.
Closer to home at West Chester, a major highlight came in the sprints from first year Niko Beros. Beros clocked a personal-best time of 11.10 seconds in the 100 meters, finishing fifth overall. The mark moves him to sixth on Haverford's all-time performance list, just ahead of Pete Landon '95's 11.11. Teammate Nico Greene finished ninth overall in 11.30 in his first collegiate race at the distance. Zenas Boamah (24th, 11.60), Nathan Ma (31st, 11.84), and Amon-Ra Kamit (40th, 12.26) also represented the Fords in the event.
In the 110-meter high hurdles, Alex Geng collected his first collegiate mark in the event, and earned a third-place finish with a time of 18.14.
Haverford was also well-represented in the 400 meters. Thomas Fendig led the group with a second-place finish in 50.20, earning eight points toward the team score. Vir Goyal added to the scoring with an eighth-place result in 54.42. Derek Linden followed in 56.34, with Jonah Hoffmann-Weitsman running a personal-best 57.47. Jason Mayo rounded out the squad's efforts in 58.65.
In the 1,500 meters, Haverford had a large and competitive group. Micah Lachman captured the event title in 4:04.80, scoring 10 points. Luke de Valpine (4:06.62, personal best) and Reed Solomon (4:08.45) took fourth and fifth. Jakob Maiwald was also in the scoring mix with an eighth-place finish in 4:10.43. Just outside of the points were Reef Kirchner in 10th with a personal-best 4:12.89 and Torin Pelton-Flavin in 11th (4:14.66).
Joseph De Rosa placed 16th in 4:18.92. Nicky Elias-Gillette (4:30.06) and Tommaso Wheeler (4:30.16) finished in 27th and 28th. Gopal Patel (34th, 4:36.02), Seawon Park (35th, 4:36.75), and Kieran McDonnell (36th, 4:37.33) crossed in close succession. Cullen Worth ran 4:46.18 for 44th place, followed by Rowan Shigeno in 46th at 4:48.39.
As a team, Haverford finished seventh overall with 39 points, edging out Kean and Centennial Conference rival Swarthmore. Division II Caldwell University won the team title with 104 points, followed by host West Chester in second with 83.
The Fords will return to action next weekend at the Paul Donahue Invitational, hosted by Widener. Events begin on Friday, April 18 at 5 p.m. and continue through Saturday, April 19.
