GFS boys superb at FSL's; girls place third

Posted 10/24/16

Celebrating their overpowering performance at the Friends Schools League championships are GFS runners (from left) Jonnie Plass, Colin Riley, Daniel Stassen, Tim Peterson, Ellis Maddox, Nick Dahl, …

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GFS boys superb at FSL's; girls place third

Posted

Celebrating their overpowering performance at the Friends Schools League championships are GFS runners (from left) Jonnie Plass, Colin Riley, Daniel Stassen, Tim Peterson, Ellis Maddox, Nick Dahl, and Zach Goldberg. Celebrating their overpowering performance at the Friends Schools League championships are GFS runners (from left) Jonnie Plass, Colin Riley, Daniel Stassen, Tim Peterson, Ellis Maddox, Nick Dahl, and Zach Goldberg.

by Tom Utescher

Given the results that the Germantown Friends School boys have been turning in all season, you would have to have recently returned from the depths of the Amazon rainforest to be surprised at what happened at the 2016 Friends Schools League Cross Country Championships last week.

On Tuesday afternoon at the George School, the Tigers lodged all seven of their varsity entrants in the top dozen, with their five scorers all among the first eight finishers.

A month earlier, GFS senior Nick Dahl had won the George School Invitational in an impressive time of 16 minutes, 23 seconds, and at the FSL meet he shaved off more than seven seconds on the same course to win in 16:15.70.

That started the Tigers out toward a team total of 22 points, 40 points ahead of event host George School, which had 62. Close to the Cougars, the only other team to keep its score down in double digits was third-place Westtown School, with 65.

"One of our goals this season was to put seven guys in the top 10 at champs, and we put in six," noted first-year GFS head coach Conrad Haber.

In the varsity girls' FSL competition at George, the individual runner-up was Germantown Friends' Griffin Kaulbach, one of two seniors who were the only runners to crack the 20-minute mark. Kaulbach clocked in at 19:50.40, and in first place was Emily Burd of the Friends Central Phoenix, who easily defended their 2015 league title.

Kaulbach turned out to be the only runner from another school to infiltrate FC's top five, and the Phoenix won with 19 points while Westtown was second with 53 and GFS came in third with 75.

After Dahl (who recently committed to Yale University) blitzed the boys' field, GFS junior Zach Goldberg was engaged in a battle for the runner-up spot.

"Zach had a really good day," the Tigers' Haber said. "He beat Jeffrey Love from George School, who's a very good runner, and he was going back and forth with Ryan O'Donnell [a Westtown junior] until near the end, and he really made O'Donnell work for second place."

Goldberg, third in 16:49.40, was followed to the line by George School sophomore Love, who took fourth in 17:25.10. Next, the Tigers had junior Colin Riley (17:37.60) and senior Daniel Stassen (17:38.40) cross the line close together to secure fifth and sixth place.

Seventh and eighth place also went to GFS, with senior Jonnie Plass (17:48.20) finalizing the Tigers' team score, and with junior Tim Peterson completing the course in 18:05.40.

After that, George School seniors Emilio Prieto and Alex Carideo were sandwiched around tenth-place Kevin Montresor, a junior who was Friends Central's highest finisher. When GFS senior Ellis Maddox came in 12th in 18:32.70, all seven of the school's runners were done for the day.

Like Germantown's Goldberg in the boys' race, the Tigers' Kaulbach made a move two-thirds of the way through the girls' contest, forging into the lead. Friends Central's Burd forged ahead later on to capture the win.

"Griffin ran really well," Haber stated. "She had the Friends Central girl for most of the race, and then just got outkicked right at the end."

Helen Ruger, a junior who had been number one on the GFS tennis team before switching to cross country this year, was second for the Tigers and 13th overall at the FSL's with a time of 23:32.90.

Unfortunately, the team was unable to put a true pack together. Landing in 16th and 18th place, respectively, were seniors Sophie Quaglia (23:55.70) and Sophie Smith (24:15.30). Even two juniors with consecutive places (26th and 27th) were 10 seconds apart, Lexy Pickering crossing the line in 25:40.90, and Caroline MacRae in 25:50.80. Also in the varsity race for the Tigers was senior Ellie Zack, who placed 37th in 28:15.00.

Compared to the GFS boys' cross country program, with competes only with the soccer team for athletes, the numbers for the girls are curtailed by the fact that the school offers not only soccer, but also varsity field hockey and tennis as fall season alternatives.

"Some girls graduated from last year's team, and a few others who were going to be among the top returning runners came in with injuries from the summer," Haber related. "We'll see if we can't move up next week [at the Pa. Independent Schools meet], and then I'm looking forward to improving our turnout for the indoor track season."

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