Charter charges to Inter-Ac boys track title

Posted 5/22/17

Penn Charter senior Dylan Burnett (left) and Germantown Academy junior Kyle Garland battle through the 110 meter hurdles. (Photo by Tom Utescher) by Tom Utescher Even a track and field squad that …

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Charter charges to Inter-Ac boys track title

Posted

Penn Charter senior Dylan Burnett (left) and Germantown Academy junior Kyle Garland battle through the 110 meter hurdles. (Photo by Tom Utescher)

by Tom Utescher

Even a track and field squad that dominates its dual meets tends to come back to the pack in a multi-team championship setting. To some extent, that happened to Penn Charter last Monday at the 2017 Inter-Ac League Championships, but not nearly enough to mean much to the other five schools.

In the morning, a one-two-three sweep in the triple jump helped the Quakers finish the field events portion of the meet with an edge over defending league champ Germantown Academy, 55.5 points to 51.5. When the running events got going, PC's lead started to snowball.

The Quakers won the three sprints, and although they did not score in 800, 1600, and 3200, athletes from other schools helped hold down GA's scoring in those events. With a few races left to go, it was clear that only a complete collapse by Charter would allow anyone to beat them, and in the concluding 4 x 400 relay, the PC squad was able to take its foot off the gas.

The Quakers won with a total of 139.5 points to GA's 100.5. The next three teams were more closely spaced, with third through fifth place going to Haverford School (66 points), Episcopal Academy (57), and Malvern Prep (51), respectively.

Springside Chestnut Hill Academy derived 14 of its 19 total points from Noah Chandler, a senior who will investigate the possibility of walking onto the team at Syracuse University. He followed up a fourth-place showing in the 1600 meters with a victory in the 800 meters (2:00.78). Another fourth-place performance was delivered to the Blue Devils by sophomore Robert Gentile in the 100-meter dash.

After the Quakers' team victory, Penn Charter Director of Track Steve Bonnie remarked, "We were fortunate enough to be undefeated in the dual meets, but we knew that GA and Haverford were particularly strong, and other teams had good individual guys. We knew that we still had to go out and execute."

Germantown Academy boasted the outstanding individual athlete in the meet; that was officially acknowledged when junior phenom Kyle Garland received the league's George Greenwood Award. He won both the high jump and the shot put (51'5.75") over at the field events venue, then stepped onto the track to take the gold medal in both the 110 and 300 meter hurdles (in 14.69 and 38.85).

In the high jump, Quakers senior Akeem Blake high-jumped 6'9" to break by one inch the 1999 meet record set by his PC predecessor Steve Wiley. In the next round of jumps, GA's Garland soared 6'10", quickly establishing a new Inter-Ac standard and winning the competition.

Blake would not be denied gold, though, and he equaled a longstanding Inter-Ac mark along the way. Richard Hazard appeared for decades simply as R. Hazard in the league annals for his 1949 long jump of 23'7". Blake matched that feat to win in 2017, with GA senior Kyle McCloskey coming in second. McCloskey's older sister Megan (GA '14), now at Penn State, still holds the Inter-Ac girls' high jump record. Kyle will continue on to play quarterback for the football team at Villanova University.

In the long jump last week, Akeem Blake's freshman brother, Akeel, came in sixth. The elder Blake would also win the triple jump, travelling 44'8.5", with Akeel landing as the runner-up. This event stung the Patriots, who were unable to score while Charter came away with a total of 24 points (senior Tzion Jones completed a sweep of the top three spots by PC).

In the shot put, though, Garland's winning toss was backed up by a third-place result from Patriots sophomore Olatide Abinusawa. GA senior Austin Takei repeated as pole vault champion, this time clearing the bar at 12 feet even to place two spots ahead of Quakers 12th-grader Edgar McIlvaine.

The Penn Charter team celebrates a convincing victory at the 2017 Inter-Ac League Track and Field Championships. (Photo by Tom Utescher)

Coming onto the track, Penn Charter was still only a few points ahead of Germantown, but the Quakers then began to separate from their rivals. In the three sprints, four Penn Charter athletes earned a combined total of 54 points, more than two opposing teams scored altogether.

Senior Chris Tucker, who's headed for the University of Connecticut, won both the 100 (11.02) and 200 (22.0) dash, while his sophomore teammate Edward Saydee was runner-up in the 100 and placed third in the 200. Freshman Marcellus Poland captured the 400-meter crown in 50.34 seconds, and junior Matt Barkann was right there for Charter in the second spot.

"When you start doing that stuff, that's a lot of points and it's hard for the other schools to make that up," Bonnie observed.

Although GA was stronger than Penn Charter in the distance events, athletes from other schools tied up first place - and the 10 meet points - in the 800, 1600 and 3200 meters. As noted, SCH's Chandler took the 800, and 2016 Inter-Ac Cross country champ Peter Borger of Malvern won the 1600 and the 3200.

Patriots senior Owen Ritz still had a good day, placing third in the 3200, and coming in a fraction of a second behind Borger (0.38) in the 1600 after starting a closing sprint just a little too late. He will not follow the footsteps of older brothers Ben and Sam to Columbia University, but he will run in the Ivy League, choosing Dartmouth.

Fellow Patriots seniors Ale Gonzalez and Peter Butler also scored last Monday, Gonzalez finishing fourth in the 800 behind a pair of Episcopal runners, while Butler was fifth in the 3200.

Although GA's Garland was king of the hurdles, the Pats were still outscored in both races due to the Quakers' depth. In the 110's, seniors Dylan Burnett and Conrad Williams placed third and fourth, and the meet hosts picked up the points for fifth and sixth, as well. Burnett and Williams duplicated those results in the 300 hurdles, where sixth place went the Quakers' way too.

Burnett will run for La Salle University, and Williams is headed to the University of Rhode Island to play soccer.

Near the end of the afternoon, there was no need for the PC Quakers to push themselves in the 4 x 400 relay, which was won by Haverford School in 3:25.42, with Episcopal second in 3:26.43. Charter cruised home third in 3:32.46 with the quartet of Burnett, Barkann, Poland, and Akeem Blake, and in fourth in 3:39.09 was the GA foursome of Gonzalez, McCloskey, sophomore Kevin Lamb, and Danny Ritz, a 10th-grader who is the youngest of GA's four Ritz brothers.

After Malvern secured fifth place in 3:40.78, Springside Chestnut Hill arrived in 3:48.71, with sophomores Peter Kapp, Luke Greenberg, and Santiago Camara preceding Chandler, the anchorman.

MEET RESULTS (* meet record)

100 Meters

1. PC Chris Tucker-12 11.02

2. PC Edward Saydee-10 11:26

3. HS Daiyaan Hawkins -9 11.33

4. SC Robert Gentile-10 11.59

5. PC John Washington-11 11.76

6. HS Aaron Hudson-12 11.81

200 Meters

1. PC Chris Tucker-12 22.00

2. HS Daiyaan Hawkins-9 22.73

3. PC Edward Saydee-10 22.88

4. EA Matt Freese-12 23.11

5. GA Mike Capone-11 23.55

6. HS Aaron Hudson-12 23.69

400 Meters

1. PC Marcellus Poland-9 50.34

2. PC Matt Barkann-11 50.90

3. EA Jack Bush-10 51.09

4. HS Dan Whaley-10 51.56

5. MP Kevin Boyle-11 51.85

6. GA Kyle McCloskey-12 52.18

800 Meters

1. SC Noah Chandler-12 2:00.78

2. EA Carson Fischer-10 2:01.73

3. EA Jeffrey Coote-12 2:02.03

4. GA Ale Gonzalez-12 2:02.72

5. HS Taj Bland-12 2:02.73

6. HS Mark Gregory-11 2:04.86

1600 Meters

1. MP Peter Borger-11 4:32.07

2. GA Owen Ritz-12 4:32.45

3. EA Elias Lindgren-11 4:32.50

4. SC Noah Chandler-12 4:35.08

5. HS Will Merhige-11 4:37.57

6. EA Jakob Jorgensen-12 4:38.77

3200 Meters

1. MP Peter Borger-11 9:54.78

2. EA Elias Lindgren-11 10:01.48

3. GA Owen Ritz-12 10:14.95

4. EA Jakob Jorgensen-12 10:18.63

5. GA Peter Butler-12 10:28.54

6. HS Anthony Calvelli-12 10:30.93

110 Meter Hurdles

1. GA Kyle Garland-11 14.69

2. HS Sam Lindner-11 14.90

3. PC Dylan Burnett-12 14.92

4. PC Conrad Williams-12 16.05

5. PC Matt Barkann-11 16.54

6. PC Pat McLaughlin-12 16.56

300 Meter Hurdles

1. GA Kyle Garland-11 38.85

2. HS Sam Lindner-11 38.88

3. PC Dylan Burnett-12 40.86

4. PC Conrad Williams-12 41.41

5. GA Kevin Lamb-10 42.24

6. PC Pat McLaughlin-12 42.72

High Jump (PC Steve Wiley 1999 6'8")

1. GA Kyle Garland-11 6'10" *

2. PC Akeem Blake-12 6'9" *

3. EA Jermaine Rhoden-12 6'4"

4. PC Patrick Gabor-10 6'2"

5. GA Kyle McCloskey-12 6'0"

6. MP David Bolles-11 6'0"

Long Jump (PC R. Hazard 1947 23'7")

1. PC Akeem Blake-12 23'7" *

2. GA Kyle McCloskey-12 21'4.75"

3. MP David Bolles-11 21'3"

4. GA Kevin Lamb-10 21'0.5"

5. HS Sam Lindner-11 20'11.5"

6. PC Akeel Blake-9 20'7"

Triple Jump

1. PC Akeem Blake-12 44'8.5"

2. PC Akeel Blake-9 42'05"

3. PC Tzion Jones-12 41'11"

4. HS Nate Whitaker-10 41'7"

5. MP Sebastian Constantini-10 40'1"

6. SC Bashir Shakir-11 39'1"

Pole Vault

1. GA Austin Takei-12 12'0"

2. MP Sean Oates-11 12'0"

3. PC Edgar McIlvaine-12 11'6"

4. MP Sebastian Constantini-10 11'0"

5. PC Chris Johnson-12 10'0"

5. GA Kevin Lamb-10 10'0"

Shot Put

1. GA Kyle Garland-11 51'5.75"

2. HS Petey Lemmon-10 49'6"

3. GA Olatide Abinusawa-10 49'6"

4. MP Jake Glavin-12 47'3.5"

5. MP Joe Basiura-11 46'8"

6. PC Billy Costello-12 46'7.75"

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