Just before the one-mile mark in the Inter-Ac girls' race, the lead pack consisted of (from left) Ariana Feliziani of Episcopal Academy, Germantown Academy's Abbe Goldstein and Jackie DeRusso, Caitlin Jorgensen (EA), and Sanaiya Watts (Agnes Irwin). (Photo by Tom Utescher)

by Tom Utescher

Last Monday Germantown Academy senior Abbe Goldstein ended her Inter-Ac cross country career the way she had begun it, by leading the Patriots to victory at the league championships with a first-place finish. She also was the individual champion as a sophomore and junior, and last week she completed an unprecedented four-year sweep of the individual title as she crossed the finish line at Belmont Plateau in 19 minutes, 39.30 seconds.

Out of sight of the leader, Sanaiya Watts of Agnes Irwin was the runner-up in 20:28.80 and fellow sophomore Caitlin Jorgensen of Episcopal Academy was third (20:38.10.

After another EA runner, senior Ariana Feliziani, came in fourth (20:52), GA strengthened its position in the team point tally by securing three of the next four places. In fifth and sixth were freshmen Gianna Murgia and Isabell Goldstein (Abbe's sister) with times of 20:57.90 and 21:31.50, and in eighth place was junior Kelsey O'Hara (21:49.10).

In the middle of this Patriot trio was Penn Charter's lead runner, freshman Sophia Solomon (seventh; 21:47.80).

GA would place all of its five scorers with the top one dozen spots, as junior Jackie DeRusso came in 12th in 22:27.20. The Patriots' team total of 32 points put them far in front of second-place Episcopal (74) and number three Academy of Notre Dame (79), which had finished just a single point ahead of GA in 2015 to win the league title.

After another Main Line school, Agnes Irwin, secured fourth place with 89 points, while PC was fifth with 134. Not far behind Charter, Springside Chestnut Hill Academy had senior Rebecca Saunders place 17th in 23:08.10 to help earn a sixth-place tie with Baldwin School, each with 141 points.

Back in 2013, the year when the Belmont course was remapped and altered to its current form, GA's Goldstein upset defending champ Jamie Costarino of SCH to win her first individual Inter-Ac crown with a time of 19:46.20. She repeated as a sophomore with a slightly quicker figure of 19:45.60, and then she romped to victory in 18:55.30 as a junior, when the only other runner within 90 seconds of her time was her older teammate, Maggie Hallahan.

The path to her historic four-year sweep was not entirely smooth, though. After easily winning the George School Invitational in mid-September, she turned in a distinctly subpar performance at Lehigh University's Paul Short Run on October 1. She felt something was wrong, and when she sought medical advice, it turned out she was suffering from an iron deficiency.

She related, "After I got my bloodwork back I said, alright, I'm just going to take it easy for a week and feel it out."

She began taking iron supplements and eating more red meat, focusing her plans not on the races coming up over the next few weeks (including the Inter-Ac's) but major events a little farther down the road, like the Footlocker Northeast Regionals on November 26.

At last week's league meet, she explained, "I wanted to take the race out conservatively, stick with the pack and just race the other runners instead of worrying about time. Usually I'm trying for a really good time and maybe a new PR."

GA head coach Judy Krouse said of the senior's four-peat "It was pretty cool to have her do that. The approach was just do what you have to do to win. She knows herself, and she ran a smart race."

In her first competition since Paul Short, Goldstein completed the initial one-mile loop of the Plateau as part of a lead pack of five that included her teammate DeRusso, Episcopal's Jorgensen and Feliziani, and Watts of Agnes Irwin.

"Going into the race, I wasn't sure when I was going to make my move because I didn't know how I was going to feel," she related.

After running that first circuit of the open section of the course, she was feeling strong, and she made her push a bit sooner than she'd thought she might.

"I went for it at around 1700 meters, about a hundred meters into the woods," she said. "I wanted to see how far I could push myself without pushing too hard."

Nearing the edge of the woods with under a mile to go, GA's Abbe Goldstein was running entirely alone. (Photo by Tom Utescher)

Before emerging from the woods with a little under a mile remaining in the race, she was already entirely alone. At the finish, the next couple of spots went to Episcopal and Irwin, but when the Patriots inserted three more runners among the top eight, Coach Krouse knew the Pats were in good shape. DeRusso locked up the team title for GA with her 12th-place showing, and the team's other two runners, juniors Anna Hennessy (24:03.50) and Sydney Sciascia (24:09.90) placed 26th and 27th.

GA obviously had a few strong returning runners from 2015's second-place squad, and Krouse pointed out "Having the two freshmen, Gianna and Izzy, has made all the difference, because we have way more of a pack. Today we just needed to have that pack together, and we did a pretty good job with that."

Speaking of Murgia and the younger Goldstein, Krouse said, "They're relatively unflappable for freshmen. I always tell all the girls that if someone ahead you is having a bad day, don't be afraid to pass them because they're older than you or they're normally ahead of you."

Right behind the two GA youngsters in seventh place was another ninth-grader, Penn Charter's Solomon. She has been the Quakers' number one all season, and at the league meet her classmate Alicia Newman was the second PC runner across the line, placing 21st in 23:31.10.

Running together, Charter sophomore Hadley Ball (24:47.70) and senior Rosemary Kaufman (24:51.90) finished 33rd and 34th, and completing the Quakers' team score was senior Marilyn Pease (39th; 26:18.90). PC only entered six runners in the varsity race; sophomore Mary McDavid finished 45th in 27:48.70.

Springside Chestnut Hill positioned three athletes among the top two dozen, as Saunders was followed by freshman Elizabeth Moore (23rd; 23:49.30) and junior Haley Unthank (24th; 23:54.20). Unthank is primarily a sprinter in track, making up part of SCH's strong relay teams in the winter and spring seasons.

Sophomore Lilly Forrest was the fourth Blue Devils finisher, winding up 36th in 25:07.20. Three seniors rounded out the SCH seven, Lisa Zhao (41st; 26:30.10), Paige Aloise (43rd; 27:10.40), and Vince Qian (44th; 27:39.50).

GA's Goldstein decided recently that she'll take her talents to Harvard University, along with two other elite runners from Southeastern Pennsylvania. Current state number one Aislinn Devlin of Downingtown West High School and Anna Juul of Unionville will also be headed to Cambridge, Mass. next fall.