2006 Preview
The 2006 Swarthmore men's cross country team looks to improve upon its third place finish at the 2005 Centennial Conference championship meet. Led by All Mid-East Region and All-Centennial senior Vernon Chaplin (Indian Springs, AL / Indian Springs), the Garnet will rely on a number of young runners to contribute to the team's success.
Chaplin, running cross country for the first time in 2005, earned second team All-Centennial Conference; finishing eleventh in the championship meet at Johns Hopkins on Oct. 29. He then ran 26th out of 280 runners the following weekend at the Mid-East Regional meet in Carlisle, Pa. (narrowly missing a national qualifier spot), leading the Garnet to a seventh-place finish. Chaplin was also named to the ESPN the Magazine Academic All-District II College Division Men's Track & Field/Cross Country first team and was selected for the inaugural Philadelphia Inquirer Academic All-Area Team.
Joining Chaplin will be juniors Ross Weller (McConnellsburg, PA / Mercersburg Academy) and Jonathan Shoop (Reno, NV / Incline), both of whom finished in the top-25 at the Centennial Championships. Sophomores Erik Saka (Quincy, IL / Quincy) and Dan Hodgson (Trumbell, CT / Fairfield Prep) will also be looking to build on strong freshman campaigns.
In the annual pre-season coaches' poll, the Garnet were picked to finish second to defending champion Haverford. Swarthmore received 53 points to rank ahead of Dickinson (49 points), Muhlenberg (48), and Johns Hopkins (34) to round out the top five.
The Garnet open up the 2006 season on Saturday, Sept. 2 vs. Chestnut Hill College at Fort Washington Park, and then will compete in the annual Garnet Alumni Meet a week later. On Sept. 22 the team travels to Haverford College for the Haverford Invitational, facing teams from Villanova, the College of New Jersey, and Elizabethtown. On October 7, the Garnet will run in the Dickinson Long/Short Meet, getting a good look at the course at Carlisle High School, site of the 2006 Centennial Conference Championships on October 28.