GFS junior Ethan Jones (left) takes the baton from freshman Ben Stassen for the final leg of the 4 x 800 meter relay. (Photo by Tom Utescher)

by Tom Utescher

The visiting Westtown School boys, known as the Moose, outscored host Germantown Friends, 38-25, in the field events portion of last Tuesday’s Friends Schools League dual meet, but the Tigers enjoyed a huge advantage on the track, and overall GFS prevailed easily, 90-60.

With a time of five minutes, 3.7 seconds, freshman Nick Dahl led a one-two-three sweep in the 1600-meter footrace, and he also won the 800, in 2:14.4. In the hurdles, junior Giulian McFarland was also a dual winner, clocking in at 15.5 seconds in the 110-meter high hurdles and at 41.8 in the 300 intermediates.

Sophomore Grayson Hepp was right behind Dahl in the 1600 (5:03.8), and senior Andy Bugos rounded out a GFS sweep in 5:07.9. Junior Ethan Jones was runner-up to Dahl in the 800 with a time of 2:18.9. The Tigers scooped up all the points in the 3200, thanks to junior Joe Newmann (11:16.3) and sophomores Gordy Goldstein (11:16.7) and Zach Schwartz (11:21.4).

Freshman Evan Gorski showed promise in the hurdles, nipping a Westtown rival at the line to nab second in the 110’s (21.8), and coming in third in the 300’s (52.5).

The visiting Moose won the 100, 200, and 400, but Hepp was second in the 400 (54.7) and GFS senior Julian Dorsey was runner-up in both the 100 (11.3) and the 200 (23.6). Third place points were picked up by junior Ahshar Williams in the 200 (24.2) and by senior Dimitri Diagne in the 400 (55.7).

In field events, Williams won the high jump, at 5’8”, and Germantown swept the pole vault, courtesy of three sophomores, Arron Brill (7’6”), Josh Rosenfeld (7’0”), and David Barr (6’0”). Two more Tiger 10th-graders, Jared Lazorko and Gabe Buyske-Friedberg came in first and third in the discus, respectively, with tosses measured at 86’ 7.5” and 72’ 4”.

Westtown swept the shot put and javelin competitions, and went one-two in the long jump. Senior Cameron Dichter of GFS was third in this last event with a leap of 15’ 6.5”, while in the triple jump, the Tigers had Rosenfeld place second (31’8”), just a fraction ahead of Bugos (31’ 7.25”).

Figuring into the Tigers’ overall margin of victory were wins in the three relay races, the 4 x 100 (46.1 with a lean at the line), 4 x 400 (3:45.5), and 4 x 800 (9:19.4).

McFarland, Dorsey, freshman Jake Schwartz and Williams ran the 4 x 100, Hepp, Diagne, Dichter, and Dahl represented the Tigers in the 4 x 400, and the 4 x 800 winners were Goldstein, junior Mathias Hammer, freshman Daniel Stassen, and Jones.

GFS has a new addition to its coaching staff this spring in former Archbishop Ryan standout Phil Celona. He ran both cross country and track in high school, and was a member of the Raiders’ distance medley relay team that won the indoor national championship in 2008.

He did not run track while attending Temple University, but he is currently very active on the club circuit. He works at the Jenkintown Running Company, which is where he met GFS head coach Rob Hewitt. He also helped coach cross country for GFS last fall.