Germantown Friends senior Nick Dahl is pictured passing by the clock on the finish line at George School, where he led the Tigers to a team triumph at the 64th Annual George School Invitational. (Photo by Tom Utescher)

by Tom Utescher

A popular song by one of the "British Invasion" bands of the 1960's was titled "Over, Under, Sideways, Down." That pretty much sums up the ways that Germantown Friends School trounced the rest of the boys' field at last Saturday's George School Cross Country Invitational.

All five scorers for the Tigers were among the top 13 finishers overall, and senior Nick Dahl, one of the nation's top scholastic 3200 and 5000 meter runners, smoked the competition to win the meet by almost a full minute. Despite running alone for two thirds of the race, the disciplined Dahl ground out a personal best time of 15 minutes, 23 seconds, which became the top time in the state thus far in the 2016 X-C season.

Second place went to Germantown Academy senior Owen Ritz (16:20), who did not gain as much separation from the runner behind him, but still enjoyed a 16-second cushion at the finish.

"I went out fast to see if I could shake some guys early," Dahl explained. "I thought it might tire out some guys from other schools, and help my teammates move up."

The Tigers won the meet with a team score of 35 points, worlds away from the runner-up squad from host George School, which put up 103 points. Two Inter-Ac League schools came next, with Haverford edging out GA for third place, 116-120.

Germantown Friends had opened its 2016 season on Labor Day weekend by participating in an unusual cross country relay event out in West Chester. Last Saturday's invitational was the first orthodox cross country competition for the Tigers.

Meanwhile, Germantown Academy had won a non-league dual meet over Plymouth Whitemarsh High School at the end of August, and then opened the Inter-Ac season on Tuesday of last week with a 19-38 victory at Springside Chestnut Hill.

After Dahl's impressive solo act at George School on Saturday, juniors Colin Riley and Zach Goldberg were the next GFS Tigers at the finishing stripe, coming in sixth and seventh overall with times of 16:55 and 16:57. GFS senior Daniel Stassen was ninth in 17:19, and after 10th place went to the lead runner from Archbishop Wood High School, senior Peter Butler became GA's second arrival as he finished 12th (17:29). He was one place and five seconds ahead of the fifth Germantown Friends scorer, senior Jonnie Plass (17:34).

It was the 64th running of the George School meet. The weather just one week earlier would've been intolerable for this type of event, but last Saturday there were cool conditions as hundreds of harriers arrived at the Bucks County School. By the start of the boys' race at 9:30 AM, the temperature had risen, but was still relatively comfortable for mid-September.

In addition to the GFS tour-de-force, the Friends Schools League was also well represented by athletes from Westtown and George School, who placed their top runners third and fifth, respectively. The sixth and seventh runners among the GFS group were senior Ellis Maddox (32nd; 18:28) and sophomore Miles Gomez-Younkin (36th; 18:37).

After Ritz and Butler, Germantown Academy had senior Alejandro Gonzalez (a convert from the Patriots' soccer program) crack the top 20 with an 18th-place showing in 17:51. GA's score was completed by seniors Gavin Rees (40th; 18:44) and Braden Cody (53rd; 19:14). The Patriots had sophomore Kevin Lamb land in 62nd place (19:21), and senior LeRoy Moser was 70th (19:32).

Although the girls' teams from Penn Charter and Springside Chestnut Hill ran at George School (see separate story), neither school entered its boys in the event. The PC Quakers had run at an invitational out in Pottstown on Friday.