In the mile, SCH freshman Jack Leininger (left) challenges the leader from Holy Ghost Prep at the finish line. (Photo by Tom Utescher)

by Tom Utescher

For many years, one of the first area events in the scholastic spring track and field season was the annual Chestnut Hill Academy Relays in mid-March. The old CHA became part of the merged school known as Springside Chestnut Hill Academy, but the athletic gathering continued, with its scope expanded beyond just relay races.

This year, though, the event was not held at all. SCH was hosting an expansive robotics competition last weekend, and only a limited number of carbon-based life forms were allowed on campus.

Instead, the SCH boys took a jaunt down to Penn Charter on Friday afternoon for a practice tri-meet involving the PC Quakers and Holy Ghost Prep.

The Blue Devils finished sixth at the Inter-Ac League championships last year, and most of their points were scored by 800-meter winner Noah Chandler, who is now at Syracuse University.

Bashir Shakir scored for SCH in the triple jump in the 2017 meet, and another current senior, Earl Patterson, also returns with experience in the jumps and hurdles. Other than that, it's a pretty young group.

"There are only three seniors on the entire team, and there are a lot of freshmen and sophomores," pointed out longtime head coach Paul Hines.

An 11th-grader of note is Rob Gentile, who placed fourth in the 100 meters at the Inter-Ac meet last spring and who performed well on the indoors winter circuit this year. Sophomore Trevor Meyer also had a good winter season, and last week at PC he won the intermediate hurdles and was second in the high hurdles and the high jump.

In the 800 meters, freshman Jack Leininger came within a fraction of a second of pulling off a come-from-behind victory at Penn Charter. Coming off of a 25th place finish in the U.S. freshman mile at the indoor championships, he'll probably range down as far as 400 meters this spring, and is a mile relay candidate.

In field events, another ninth-grader could provide some highlights for the Blue Devils; Carnell Kemp won the shot put at last Friday's tune-up meet.

Surveying the Inter-Ac League overall, SCH's Hines remarked, "Penn Charter is loaded, and all of the other teams have some very good pieces. We don't have a lot of experience, and we're looking to develop the young guys. We've got to get back to our bread-and-butter, getting some hurdlers and jumpers and shot putters back in the thick of the action like we had four or five years ago."