Penn Charter girls overpower league rivals at Inter-Ac meet

by Tom Utescher
Posted 5/17/23

Penn Charter won just three events last Saturday when it hosted the Inter-Ac track and field championships, but the versatility and depth of the Quakers girls allowed them to win the team title.

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Penn Charter girls overpower league rivals at Inter-Ac meet

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Penn Charter won just three events last Saturday when it hosted the Inter-Ac track and field championships, but the versatility and depth of the Quakers girls allowed them to win the team title in the league meet over Episcopal Academy for the second year in a row.

PC stacked up 180 points to Episcopal's 141, with Germantown Academy placing third with 82 points and the Academy of Notre Dame coming in fourth, with 68. In fifth through seventh were Springside Chestnut Hill (26 points), Agnes Irwin (18), and Baldwin School (nine).

The Episcopal Churchwomen won eight events, but four of those victories came from a single athlete. Junior Avery Elliott won both hurdling events and the high jump and long jump, scoring 40 points for her team to become the meet MVP.

Penn Charter didn't need to have a lot of athletes maxed out in four events.

Sophomore Alli DeLisi put on masterful performances in the 800 (2:16.11) and 1600 meters (4:59.43) to win both races easily, and at the end of the afternoon, she anchored a Penn Charter 4 x 400-meter relay that won in a meet record time of 3:59.91. Preceding her in the relay order were sophomore Sam Jaffe (lead-off), senior Dani Shipon, and freshman Michaela Poland.

Poland had a great rookie effort at the championships, winning the 400 meters (58.38 seconds), placing second in the 200, and finishing third in the 100.

Shipon would place third in the 800 meters, one spot ahead of Sam Jaffe's twin sister, Alex. In the 400, Alex and Sam came in fourth and fifth, respectively. Sophomore Kaylinn Bethea, a starter for Penn Charter's basketball and field hockey teams, was third in the 200 meters and fourth in the 100.

Senior Veronica Lentz celebrated her birthday by winning a silver medal in the 100-meter hurdles and a bronze in the 300. Her junior teammate Olivia Roland won silver in the 300 and placed fourth in the 100. Fourth in the 300 was Charter freshman Lucy Sokoloff.

A very young distance runner, eighth-grader Nieve Keitel, finished third in the 3200 and fourth in the 1600.

Junior Grace Neuwirth finished fifth in the 3200 and earlier in the meet she was part of PC's victorious 4 x 800-meter relay (10:00.08). She was positioned third, behind senior Aisling Brady and junior Zady Hasse, and ahead of anchor Alex Jaffe.

Although PC coach Candice Lee saw her girls get a ton of points on the track, a contribution from the field events venues couldn't hurt. Sophomore Mariah Mays generated 16 points on her own with silver-medal showings in the discus and shot put. She also placed second in the javelin, which is an exhibition event for the time being, with no meet points involved.

PC hurdlers Roland and Lentz had started the meet off together in the high jump, winning silver and bronze medals, respectively.

The Quakers had sophomore Loella Whitaker ascend to fourth place in the pole vault, and they got fifth-place points from Sokoloff in the long jump and from junior Grace Melchoirre in the high jump.

Germantown Academy acquired the majority of its meet points in the field events. The Patriots posted 20 points in the pole vault, led by sophomore Lorelai Fortmann's gold-medal turn (9'6"). Another 10th-grader, Zoe Hellman, placed second, and freshman Devon Geist came in fifth.

In other field events, it turned out that if you can throw it, the GA girls can throw it far.

Sophomore Layla Gentile captured gold medals in both the discus (98'6") and the shot put (34'5"). The Patriots picked three other places in the discus; third from Emma Merrill, fourth from fellow junior Caitlin Lozano, and fifth from senior Kate Stone. Stone was fourth in the shot, and senior Emily Fiona McKenna was fifth.

While there were no points forthcoming, McKenna had bragging rights in the javelin, recording an Inter-Ac best of 101'6". She collected fourth-place points in the long jump, and she was GA's only scorer in the hurdles, winning the bronze medal in the 100-meter race. Another senior, Aja McBride, came in fourth in the high jump.

Of Springside Chestnut Hill's 26 total points, 18 came from the triple jump, where the Blue Devils placed second, third, and fourth thanks to sophomore Ava Lanzetta, senior Grace Hannigan, and freshman Gabriella Kilshaw.

SCH picked fifth-place points in the 200 meters from freshman Marlee Howard, and in the 4 x 100 relay, where Kilshaw anchored and was preceded by sophomore Maya Gruginski (lead-off), and freshmen Lauren Wilson and Blake Jeune.