by Tom Utescher

Pushing through the heat and humidity last Thursday afternoon, the Springside Chestnut Hill Academy boys recorded their first wins of the 2018 season in a tri-meet at Phil-Mont Christian Academy.

There was no official score for SCH and Phil-Mont head-to-head, since the host Falcons only had four varsity runners finish. The Blue Devils’ score against Exton’s Collegium Charter School was 19-40.

The five SCH scorers all placed among the top seven overall, with one runner from host Phil-Mont and one from Collegium Charter also in that group.

The Springside Chestnut Hill team captains this fall are juniors Marco Goldberg and Matt Miles. They were the Blue Devils’ top two performers at the 2017 Inter-Ac League championships, finishing 14th and 17th overall.

In last Thursday’s opener, Goldberg had about a seven-second lead over Collegium’s Manny Hernandez one mile into the contest. He widened the gap slightly over the remainder of the race, winning in 20 minutes, 27 seconds while Hernandez was runner-up in 20:37.

Springside Chestnut Hill’s position grew stronger as third and fourth place went to Miles (20:44) and sophomore Isaac Becker (22:03). Becker won a finishing sprint against Phil-Mont sophomore Torin Eimer, who became the Falcons’ first finisher in 22:04.

The Blue Devils’ last two scorers, in sixth and seventh place overall, were junior Ben Tishgart (22:14) and sophomore Peter Humphreys (22:20). Humphreys ran in the Inter-Ac varsity meet as a freshman last year, while Tishgart has transferred in from Harriton High School, and is a lacrosse player as well as a distance runner.

Falcons senior Aaron Krpata placed eighth in 23:07, and two Collegium runners rounded out the top 10. They were Albert Sommar and Austin James, both timed in 23:31. Another Phil-Mont senior, Kirsten Howland, was 11th in 23:54.

SCH senior Bill Cao, who ran at the Inter-Ac’s a year ago, took 12th place in 24:04, and two of his teammates secured the next two spots, junior Trevor Meyer (24:10) and senior Simon Kioko (24:51). Kioko is also a seasoned varsity wrestler for Springside Chestnut Hill, as is Goldberg.

SCH junior Gyre Jaeger placed 16th overall last Thursday (in 25:20), and also in the top 25 were juniors Tyler Southworth (24th; 32:29) and Marvin Liu (25th; 33:29).

All of Springside Chestnut Hill’s freshmen were away on a class trip at the time of last week’s X-C opener. Longtime head coach Paul Hines said that among the ninth graders already showing potential are Sammy Meyer (brother of Trevor), Jack Stephenson and Aidan Villasis.