2011 Season Review

Signature highlight: Returning to the NCAA national championship in Winneconne, Wis., as the reigning champion, the Fords took the runner-up trophy in 2011.  The squad had three runners named to the All-America team as they entered the championship meet with a No. 2 ranking.  Haverford secured their trip to nationals with a second-straight Mideast Region crown one week prior.  Helped by junior Jordan Schilit who led the team with an 18th-place finish at nationals, fourth at regionals and the individual crown at the Centennial Conference championship, the Fords compiled another stellar year on the race course. 

Awards:

  • NCAA Division III second-place
  • All-America honors: Schilit, Brian Sokas and Andrew Sturner
  • Mideast Region runner-up: Eric Arnold
  • All-Mideast Region: Arnold, Schilit, Sturner, Peter Kissin, Brian Sokas, Tim Schoch and Ivo Milic-Strkalj
  • All-Centennial Conference first team: Schilit, Sokas, Arnold, Sturner, Kissin, Schoch and Milic-Strkalj
  • Centennial Conference Academic Honor Roll: Arnold, Avi Bregman, Aaron Buikema, Matthew Cohen, David Colleta, Ben Cutilli, Andrew Golato, Patrick Haneman, Ethan Haswell, Kevin Hoffman, Kissin, Jake Koffer, Greg Krause, Jack McNeilly, Milic-Strkalj, Jacob Olshansky, Michael Riccio, Schoch, Daniel Stackman, Chris Stadler, Sturner and Lucas Van Meter

Season notes: Haverford placed three runners on the all-America squad based on the national championship race results this season. The highest number of Fords to earn all-America status in a single season was five in 2010 … All seven Haverford runners that raced at the Mideast Region race earned all-region status … The Fords finished fifth in the field of 13 (mostly Division I) teams at the Princeton Cross Country Invite and were beaten by only Cornell, Princeton, Yale and Saint Joseph’s…

Looking ahead: The Fords were overtaken by North Central (Ill.) College in this year’s national championship – proving how difficult it is to repeat as champs. Haverford will look to return to the national stage with a pair of all-American runners in Schilit and Sokas. A number of other runners have been waiting in the wings behind the all-Americans and so 2012 will be another test of what Coach Donnelly has up his sleeve. 

2011 Season Outlook

In 2010, Haverford College's men's cross country team won the college's first NCAA title, buoyed by All-American performances by the team's first five runners including national champion Anders Hulleberg '11. That was last year, though, and national coach of the year Tom Donnelly is focused only on 2011.

The squad returns two all-Americans in senior Eric Arnold and junior Jordan Schilit. Tim Schoch, an indoor and outdoor track all-American along with Arnold, finished 71stat the 2010 NCAA cross country championship and returns for his senior season while junior Ivo Milic-Strkalj, a three-time track all-American, will likely jump into the team's scoring quintet in 2011.

Also vying for top-five places within the team will be 2011 track all-American Andrew Golato '12 and seniors Andrew Sturner and Foraz Sohail who both posted provisional NCAA qualifying times in the 10,000 meter run for last spring's NCAA outdoor track championship. Senior Pat Haneman, junior Peter Kissin and sophomore Brian Sokas are among other top returners who could help push the team towards another podium appearance at nationals.

The Fords captured the 2010 Centennial Conference and NCAA Mideast Regional titles and those same steps toward nationals are on the 2011 to-do list for the Fords who collected five first-place votes and 61 points to sit atop the Centennial's 2011 preseason coaches' poll. Donnelly has his eye on the long-term prize, though, which is to peak at the end of the year and have the team run its best race at the 2011 NCAA championship meet.