October 18, 2007 Issue                                       

©2007 The Chestnut Hill Local

Tigers cross-country take bite out of Big Apple
by TOM UTESCHER

Joining elite runners from up and down the eastern seaboard in New York City last Saturday, Germantown Friends School’s boys cross country team made an impressive showing at the Manhattan College Invitational.

So many top-caliber teams attend the event that the varsity boys runners are separated into seven different races, all staged on a 2.5-mile course at Van Courtland Park in the Bronx. Within each contest, interesting match-ups had been arranged, and in the Varsity “E” race GFS, ranked third in the Northeast Region and tenth in the nation, faced Brentsville (VA) High School, the number four team in the Southeast.

The Tigers won comfortably with 73 points, and the Virginians actually finished third, scoring 102 points to come in behind runner-up Thousand Islands (ONT), with 86. GFS senior Max Kaulbach took first place in 12 minutes, 27.92 seconds, which was the second-fastest winning time out of all seven races.

Kaulbach completed the course more quickly than several luminaries who competed in other sections of the event, such as New Jersey’s Doug Smith (12:31.86), 13th in the nation in one poll of individual performers, and Willie Ahearn (12:45.13) the top finisher from Danbury (CT) H.S., the top-ranked team in the country. Within his own group, Kaulbach won by more than ten seconds over a Delaware Valley rival, Chris Aldrich of Henderson H.S. in West Chester.

“The best thing about Max’s race was that he didn’t back off of Aldrich,” GFS coach Rob Hewitt explained. “What sometimes hurt Max in the past is that he’d go out strong, but not hold his place in the middle mile. He can chase people down at the end, but sometimes he runs out of room. This time he kept himself up at the front, and then he opened it up when they got back on the cinders, about four hundred meters from the finish. He’s got one of the best [finishing] kicks around.”

As usual, the Tigers’ overall depth was a key to their team victory. GFS got a great effort from the McKenzie brothers; Jake, a senior, ran fifth in 12:53.66, and Gus, a sophomore, came in 12th in 13:15.96. The other two Tigers at the event were also in the 13-minute bracket; senior Isaac Ortiz placed 21st in 13:28.60 and tenth-grader Tom Waterman landed 34th in 13:39.80.

“One of the best parts of the day for us,” noted Hewitt, “is that there had been about a 45-second gap between our regular number four man, Gus, and our number five, Tom, and here that gap was only 24 seconds.”

Having finished as the top Pennsylvania team at the Manhattan race a year ago, the Tigers were familiar with the Van Courtland course.

“There’s a rolling, pretty relentless hilly section in the back that goes for about 2000 meters,” Hewitt commented. “It’s one of the more challenging courses you’ll find in the Northeast.”

Early in the season, North Allegheny High School was placed ahead of GFS in several polls, but the Wexford, PA team has not raced in high-profile meets. Teams in eastern Pennsylvania have come to the fore, and before last weekend’s jumbo meet Germantown had taken over the top spot in the state and the third position in the Northeast, while Lansdale’s North Penn High School climbed to number four in the region.

The only Northeast squads that were ahead of the Tigers were Danbury and Brookline, MA.

From here, GFS simply has to ride out minor ranking fluctuations and maintain a place of 30 or better in the Northeast. That will get the Tigers into the Regional Championship meet and give them a shot at their ultimate goal, a trip to the Nike“ National Championships at the end of November.