Germantown Academy senior Abbe Goldstein (left) is seen closing out her Inter-Ac League track career as she finishes the final leg of the 4 x 400 relay. By passing the Episcopal Academy anchor (right), Goldstein helped Notre Dame win the team championship over EA by a point-and-a-half. (Photo by Tom Utescher)

by Tom Utescher

Having already become a champion three times over at the 2017 Inter-Ac League Girls Championship Meet, Germantown Academy senior Abbe Goldstein helped create a champion at the very end. Goldstein pulled off a distance "triple" as an individual, setting a new league record in the 3200 after winning the 1600 and 800 earlier in the meet, which took place last Monday at Penn Charter.

Shortly after winning the 3200, she was tabbed to anchor GA's 4 x 400 meter relay team in the final event of the meet. Going in, two Main Line schools were atop the team standings, with Episcopal Academy ahead of the Academy of Notre Dame by two-and-a-half points.

While Baldwin School won the relay with a new meet record time (4:01.37) and Penn Charter finished second, Notre Dame's quartet came in third to lock in the final team score for the Irish at 93.5 points. At the final baton exchange, Episcopal was in fourth place, two seconds ahead of GA, and if the Churchwomen could hold that spot, they would earn four meet points and win the league title by one half of a point over Notre Dame.

After the 3200, GA's Goldstein had a short interval to rest up while the boys' 4 x 400 was run, and when the Harvard recruit took the baton for the last lap in the girls' race, she tracked down the EA anchor and helped the Patriots finish with a fourth-place overall time of 4:14.66 to Episcopal's 4:15.39. Coming away with two points instead of four, the Churchwomen were unable to retain their previous lead against the Irish, and Notre Dame repeated as Inter-Ac champion over 2013-15 titlist EA.

GA was third in the final team standings, with 83 points. Goldstein's ninth-grade sister, Issy, had been runner-up to her older sibling in the 3200 and had placed third in the 1600. Another Patriot freshman, Meaghan Toscano, made a toss of 36'3.25" in the shot put, breaking a meet record established by GA's own Caroline Doty ('08), who is better known as a basketball star who went on to play at the University of Connecticut.

Springside Chestnut Hill Academy had Libby Jefferson repeat as the league high jump champion (again at 4'10"), and the senior also won the pole vault (9'0") and finished second in the long jump to her own Blue Devils teammate, sophomore Olabisi Adams (16'3.5"). With Jefferson finishing sixth in the triple jump and sophomore Nayah Moore coming in second there, SCH emerged from the field events portion of the meet with 57.5 points. The Devils didn't end up with the same type of point production on the track, though, and finished fourth in the team standings, with 71.5 points.

Penn Charter had enjoyed one of its best regular-season outcomes in years this spring. The Quakers won all six of their league dual meets, even knocking off Notre Dame, 66-60. Facing the other six schools at once at the Inter-Ac's, however, proved to be an entirely different proposition for PC. They would place fifth overall with 64 points, ahead of Baldwin School (55) and seventh-place Agnes Irwin (five points).

Charter senior Felicia Robinson closed out her career with a victory in the triple jump (35'9.5"), and her classmate Amira Martin was third in the long jump. Moving to the track, the Quakers had sophomore Ainyae Holmes become silver medalist in the 100 meters and place fifth in the 200. Freshman Sara Shipon came in fifth in the 1600, and in the hurdles, senior Lexi Hnatkowski placed third in the 300 and sixth in the 100.

Junior Haley Unthank finishing as silver medalist in the 400 meters for Springside Chestnut Hill. (Photo by Tom Utescher)

While GA's strength in the distance events (in addition to the Goldsteins' efforts, junior Rachael Villari was third in the 800) began to build points for the Patriots on the track, SCH's momentum from the field events began to wane. The Blue Devils actually still led in the team standings after 10 of the 15 events had been completed, but then three other teams moved past them. Injury problems and mishaps had plagued SCH at the 2016 meet, and this year wasn't much different.

For the second Inter-Ac meet in a row, Adams fell during the 100 meter hurdles after being one of the leaders, and she did not enter the 300 hurdles later on. The pace of the longer race indicated that Adams would've had a good shot at winning there, too.

One of the team's talented freshmen, Luna Moskal, had been entered in two individual events and both relays. When the championships were rescheduled due to the heavy rains on the original date of May 13, Moskal had to take a pass since she had a commitment to attend a science fair at Penn State University on May 15.

The Blue Devils had the potential to put two runners in the top three in the 400, but junior Allie Kitchell, the 2016 runner-up behind a Notre Dame athlete who graduated, injured a hamstring on the final straight.

Her classmate, Haley Unthank, was able to take second place in the race.

Unapproachable in the long footraces, GA's Abbe Goldstein received the Judy Krouse Outstanding Performer Award at the end of the competition.

It's hard to believe that she's been battling an iron deficiency throughout her senior year. In the fall she won the Inter-Ac Cross Country championship for the fourth year in a row. After taking league titles in the 1600 and 3200 earlier in her career, Goldstein missed the 2016 Inter-Ac championships because she was spending the month of May studying in Spain.

She returned to the track with a vengeance as a senior. After winning the prestigious Milrose Mile during the indoor season, she excelled outdoors, too. A week before the recent Inter-Ac meet, she ran at a major invitational in West Chester and ran the 3200 meters in 10:31.85, a new number one time in Pennsylvania for 2017.

In her absence in 2016, her GA teammate Maggie Hallahan ('16) set a new Inter-Ac record of 11:24.98 in the 3200. Running unchallenged in that event last week, Goldstein cruised in at 11:03.97. In three races, the Goldstein sisters scored 44 of GA's 83 total points.

Meet Results (* new meet record)

100 Meters

1. ND Tina D'Anjolell-11 12.67

2. PC Ainyae Holmes-10 13.03

3. BS Jennifer Dietrich-12 13.08

4. EA Kathleen Anderson-9 13.14

5. AI Peyton Parker-8 13.25

6. EA Kemi Odeyemi-9 13.52

200 Meters

1. ND Tina D'Anjolell-11 26.06

2. BS Jennifer Dietrich-12 26.18

3. ND Monica McGinnis-11 27.04

4. EA Kathleen Anderson-9 27.26

5. PC Ainyae Holmes-10 27.38

6. ND Elle Halfpenny-9 27.40

400 Meters

1. BS Jennifer Dietrich-12 57.39

2. SC Haley Unthank-11 58.00

3. BS Acey Pratt-9 58.55

4. BS Absara Irgau-11 58.95

5. GA Kelsey O'Hara-11 1:01.16

6. EA Jillian Rotman-11 1:01.36

800 Meters

1. GA Abbe Goldstein-12 2:16.92

2. ND Jessica Schneider-10 2:21.61

3. GA Rachael Villari-11 2:23.50

4. GA Anna Hennessy-11 2:24.23

5. EA Jillian Rotman-11 2:24.62

6. BS Acey Pratt-9 2:24.93

1600 Meters

1. GA Abbe Goldstein-12 4:59.73

2. ND Jessica Schneider-10 5:10.54

3. GA Issy Goldstein-9 5:11.93

4. EA Caitlin Jorgensen-10 5:16.05

5. PC Sara Shipon-9 5:17.98

6. AI Sanaiya Watts-10 5:34.06

3200 Meters

(GA Maggie Hallahan 2016 11:24.98)

1. GA Abbe Goldstein-12 11:03.97 *

2. GA Issy Goldstein-9 11:44.27

3. EA Caitlin Jorgensen-10 11:49.43

4. GA Gianna Murgia-9 11:58.39

5. BS Henni Gust-11 12:09.07

6. EA Molly Giles-12 12:21.19

100 Meter Hurdles

1. ND Alex Ciampi-11 16.23

2. EA Alexis Lowber-12 16.85

3. EA Ashley Lowber-12 18.24

4. GA Cobree Hooper-10 19:10

5. SC Olabisi Adams-10 19.19

6. PC Lexi Hnatkowski-12 19:22

300 Meter Hurdles

1. ND Alex Ciampi-11 48.92

2. EA Josie Konopka-11 50.77

3. PC Lexi Hnatkowski-12 51.73

4. EA Caitlin Jorgensen-10 53.28

5. PC Marilyn Pease-12 53.38

6. PC Felicia Robinson-12 53.86

High Jump

1. SC Libby Jefferson-12 4'10"

2. BS Henni Gust-11 4'8"

2. SC Nayah Moore-10 4'8"

4. PC Marilyn Pease-12 4'8"

5. PC Carmen Williams 4'8"

6. ND Sarah Daoud-9 4'6"

6. SC Leajah Sistrunk-9 4'6"

Long Jump

1. SC Olabisi Adams-10 16'3.5"

2. SC Libby Jefferson-12 16'0.5"

3. PC Amira Martin-12 15'3.25"

4. GA Sasha Capers-9 15'1.75

5. ND Monica McGinnis-11 14'10.75"

6. GA Jenna Schumann-11 14'9.5"

Triple Jump

1. PC Felicia Robinson-12 35'9.5"

2. SC Nayah Moore-10 33'3"

3. EA Bridie Bommentre-10 31'11.75"

4. PC Anne Flemming-9 31'4.5"

5. EA Caroline Fizzano-12 29'11"

6. SC Libby Jefferson-12 29'11"

Pole Vault

1. SC Libby Jefferson-12 9'0"

2. ND Kristen Bunten-11 8'6"

3. EA Ashley Lowber-12 7'6"

4. EA Ashley Lowber-12 7'6"

5. PC Jernee Watson-11 7'6"

6. EA Emma Howley-12 7'0"

Shot Put

1. GA Meaghan Toscano-9 36'3.25"

2. EA Alex DiMarco-11 29'11"

3. EA Sasha Tancemore-12 29'11"

4. ND Kara Celano-12 29'11"

5. SC Allie Kitchell-11 27'8"

6. SC Nayah Moore-10 27'1

4 x 100 Relay

1. ND 49.27

2. EA 51.89

3. PC 52.23

4. SC 53.71

5. AI 54.27

6. BS 55.09

4 x 400 Relay

(ND 4:01.75 2015)

1. BS 4:01.37 *

2. PC 4:10.51

3. ND 4:10.89

4. GA 4:14.66

5. EA 4:15.39