In the 800 meter run, SCH freshman Allie Kitchell (left) leads a pack of Germantown Academy runners to the finish line. (Photo by Tom Utescher)

by Tom Utescher

Back in the 1980’s, a car belonging to a massive Philadelphia Eagles lineman sported a vanity license plate that read ‘2much4U’. In the girls’ track Inter-Ac League debut for Germantown Academy and Springside Chestnut Hill last week, the visiting SCH Blue Devils simply had far too much scoring firepower for the host Patriots to handle.

Placing first outright in 11 of the 14 events and tying for first in a 12th, the Devils won Wednesday’s dual meet, 99-29.

SCH junior Brooklynn Broadwater had won both the 200 and 400 meter titles at the Pennsylvania Indoor Championships back on the first of the month, so it wasn’t surprising that she prevailed in both of those races at last week’s gathering. She ran energy-conserving times of 26.8 seconds in the 200 and one minute, 3.3 seconds in the 400. That’s because Broadwater was performing in both of Wednesday’s hurdling contests, as well, winning the 100 high hurdles in 16.4 seconds, and the 300 intermediates in 1:03.3.

GA derived two-thirds of its point total from two sophomores, Abbe Goldstein and Jamie Hermance. Goldstein, the reigning Inter-Ac cross country champion, won the 1600 in 5:20, and the 3200 in 11:47. In an all-girls field in the 1600, Goldstein won by 21 seconds over a junior teammate, Maggie Hallahan.

The 3200 was a co-ed competition, and Goldstein easily eclipsed the other female competitors and finished the second by just five seconds to the second-place boy in the race, fellow GA 10th-grader Peter Butler. As if that wasn’t enough, she did this while running most of the race with one shoelace untied. SCH senior Jamie Costarino was the second girl across the line in the 3200, after placing third in the 1600.

GA’s other high-scoring sophomore, Hermance, tied for first in the high jump, as both she and SCH 10th-grader Elizabeth Jefferson topped out at 4’6”. Hermance placed second in both of the hurdling events, and GA also got a second-place finish in the 800 meters, courtesy of freshman Rachael Villari.

SCH’s rising ninth-grade star, Allie Kitchell, won the 100 meter dash (13.1) and the 800 meter run (2:34), and finished second to Broadwater in the 400. Junior Julia Reeves placed either first or second in each of the four events she entered. Winning the triple jump with a leap of 32’ 8.75”, she was runner-up in the long jump and in two contests on the track, the 100 and the 200 meters.

The long jump was won by SCH’s Jefferson, whose best effort was measured at 15’2”, and the 10th-grader placed second in the triple jump. The Blue Devils claimed top honors in the shot put, thanks to a 24’ 7.5” heave by yet another sophomore talent, Sydney Crawford.

In a break during the middle of the individual running events, Springside Chestnut Hill claimed victory in the 4 x 100 meter relay, with the foursome of sophomore Sophia Haegley, senior Bridget Lipp, and juniors Singley Risico and Essence Walden hitting the line in 53.8 seconds. The Blue Devils closed out the meet with another relay victory, this time in the 4 x 400.

SCH started out with Haegley, then the baton passed to freshman Haley Unthank and on to Walden. At the end of the first three stages the Blue Devils trailed by about 10 meters, but on the anchor leg Kitchell quickly burst into the lead and the visitors ended up with a convincing victory. Their time was 4:46, while GA finished in 4:54.