Season Outlook
The 2009 Haverford College men’s outdoor track & field team hopes to repeat its indoor season success with a Centennial Conference championship this spring. The Fords are led by a strong cast that have tasted success with individual conference titles.
Haverford returns an individual and a relay team that captured titles at last spring’s Centennial Championships. Sunil Adige is the defending champion in the 800 meter run (1 minute, 55.52 seconds) and the 4x800 relay team (7:57.06) returns three-quarters of its lineup in Elias Tousley, Paul Bisceglio and Adige.
A number of Fords helped the team to its 15th Centennial title earlier this month at the indoor meet and hope to parlay that success in the spring. Newcomer Tim Schoch capped his first Centennial indoor meet with a first-place finish in the 800 meter run. Schoch's time of 1:56.21 led a trio of Haverford point scorers as Paul Bisceglio (5th, 1:59.30), and Jason Oaks (8th, 2:00.61) also had notable finishes.
Dan O'Toole led a quartet of Fords distance men across the finish in the 3,000 run with a winning time of 8:40.18. Also scoring for the Fords by cracking the top-8 were Joe Carpenter (5th, 8:52.79), Tousley (6th, 8:54.01), and Taylor Burmeister (7th, 8:54.77). Burmeister also won the 5,000 title (15:32.28).
In the field events, two-time All-American Chaz Thomas garnered a Centennial Conference championship in the triple jump in the winter then took All-American honors in the long jump. His efforts at the conference championships earned him outstanding field performer of the meet honors.
Last spring the senior became the first Haverford triple jumper to garner All-American status with his eighth-place finish at the NCAA Championship. His leap of 47 feet, 5 ¼ inches broke his own school record. This spring Thomas will compete in the triple, long and high jumps.
Haverford hopes that the right mix of experience and talent will propel them to its 16th consecutive Centennial outdoor title in May.