Tigers charge to boys and girls track titles

Posted 5/29/12

by Tom Utescher The boys and girls track and field squads from Germantown Friends gave dominating performances out at Westtown School on May 19, when both teams easily won their respective …

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Tigers charge to boys and girls track titles

Posted

by Tom Utescher

The boys and girls track and field squads from Germantown Friends gave dominating performances out at Westtown School on May 19, when both teams easily won their respective championships at the 2012 Friends Schools League Outdoor Meet.

The Tiger boys, who came away with points in every event, outscored runner-up Westtown, 143-70. The two schools had shared the FSL crown in 2011, and GFS was the sole champion in 2010. In this year’s meet, Friends’ Central was third with 66 points, Abington Friends fourth with 64, and George School fifth with 12.

A year ago, the Germantown Friends girls tied for the title with George School, but this time GFS won outright, outpointing George School 139.5 to 90. After that came Westtown (53), Friends’ Central (43.5), and Abington (29). The female Tigers scored in every event except for the 400 meters.

The sprinters on the boys’ squad won the 4 x 100 meter relay in 45.61 seconds with the quartet of Ahshar Williams, Jeremy Wright, Nick Miller, and Uriah West, and the Tigers’ Kyle Musto, Christian Brady, Sami Aziz, and Patrick Araya combined for a third-place finish in the 4 x 400.

GFS held out junior Jordan May for individual duty, and he won the 400 meters (50.21) and placed second in both the 100 and 200. In the 200 he spearheaded a two-three-four performance for Germantown, followed over the line by Williams and Miller.

In the 800, Musto triumphed in one minute, 58.71 seconds, while James Finney and Aziz were second and fourth, respectively. The Tigers’ distance men came through as usual, sweeping the top three spots in both the 1600 and 3200 meters. In the 1600, Aziz (4:20.61), Lyle Wistar, and Brady finished in that order, and the longer race was won by Wistar (9:57.93), with Nick Dye and Henry Shah following him in.

The future looks bleak, as well, for Germantown’s rivals in the distance events; the Tigers locked up the top 10 places in a special junior varsity 1600 meter run.

Back in varsity action, GFS junior hurdler Hily Nichols placed second in the 110 high hurdles and third in the 300 intermediates, and in the 110’s Eliott Baron was third.

Senior Derek Kern spread his talent around in the field events, snagging second place in the pole vault, third in both the discus and javelin, and fourth in the shot put.

Nick Miller won the pole vault at 10’6”, and came in fifth in the long jump. Ahshar Williams was the runner-up in the high jump, while Naeem Murdic placed fourth both in that event and in the triple jump.

The Germantown Friends girls had their own field events point machine in junior Eleanor Thompson, the winner of the pole vault (9’1.25”) and the javelin (101’6”), and the third-place finisher in the long jump. In the jav, GFS also took second and fourth thanks to Carey Celata and Janelle Edwards, and Emma Clark was runner-up in the pole vault.

Kristen Shields won the discus (73’11”) and came in second in the shot put, while Edwards landed second in the discus and fourth in the shot. The Tigers’ Noni Davis secured second place in the triple jump, where teammate Alex Jones was fifth, and Davis placed fifth in the long jump. Pharr Bowser tied for fourth in the high jump.

Celata, the javelin runner up, also gave second-place performances on the track in the 800 and 1600 meter events. Fellow seniors Tess Doggett and Lydie McKenzie were third and fourth in the 800, and in the 1600 Eliza Lukens-Day came in fourth and Doggett was fifth. Lukens-Day was runner-up in the 3200 meters, where Kristen Kelly and Alison Love wound up third and fifth, respectively.

Like Celata, Davis moved from the field events arena over to the track to help the Tigers. She anchored the victorious 4 x 100 relay (52.72 seconds), in which she was preceded by Taryn Millbourne, Emma Greenstreet, and Morgan Ramsey. In the 4 x 400, a time of 4:09.79 nailed down the win for the GFS combo of Celata, Livia Jaramillo, Doggett, and Brigit Andersson.

Germantown’s Greenstreet also appeared in the 100 meter high hurdles, finishing fourth, and in the 300 intermediates the Tigers scored third, fourth, and fifth thanks to Eliza Farran, Lucy Guida, and Emma Clark.

Freshman speedster Millbourne, who led off the 4 x 100, also excelled in the open sprints, winning the 100 meters (13.09) and placing second in the 200. Andersson, also a ninth-grader, was third in the 200.
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