GFS girls track wins championship

The GFS girls track and field team proudly wears their Friends Schools League Championship medals after breaking records and scoring the most overall points in the meet at their home Greenawalt track.

Germantown Friends School’s Greenawalt track was the site for the 2005 Friends Schools League Track and Field championship. The Tigers gave the home crowd plenty of exciting competition and the thrill of witnessing the GFS girls’ team win its second league title in a row. The GFS boys’ team took third overall, behind Westtown and Friends Central.

GFS’s 4x400 squad of senior captains Glenda Smiley and Maddy Davis-Hayes, along with Elena Ballard and Ceci Davis-Hayes, continued their record setting ways by establishing a league meet best of 4:11.3, erasing a mark set by last year’s GFS foursome. GFS also won the 4x100 meter relay in 51.4 with Smiley and Ballard joined by teammates Grier Clark and Bouyeh Zulu.

Maddy Davis-Hayes broke the 800 meter meet record that had stood since 1990 with her time of 2:21.0. She also captured the 1600 meter run in 5:22.9. In both races her sister, sophomore Ceci Davis-Hayes, placed second. GFS junior Emily Martin continued her dominance in the 3,200 meter, running a tactically brilliant race to best a determined Adrienne Purdy from Friends’ Central with a time of 12:33.5.

The depth of the GFS team was evident with many younger athletes piling up points. Freshman Zulu and sophomore Ballard took second and third in the 200 meter race; sophomore Julia Bergman placed third in the long jump, and in one of the closest races of the day, was second in the 300 meter hurdles. She also won the bronze medal in the 110 meter hurdles.

The field events were virtually owned by Westtown but that didn’t stop GFS sophomore Gabby Spencer from grabbing third in the shot put; senior Rena Kreimer taking a third in the pole vault; and junior Claire Wagner leaping to a personal best mark for fifth place in the long jump as well as fourth place in the javelin. Coach McKeever said, “The championship and the season were the

culmination of the athletes’ sincerity and preparation.”

In the boys’ competition, GFS senior co-captain Chad Stern of Chestnut Hill continued his League dominance in short distance, taking first in both the 100 meters (with a time of 11.3) and the 200 meters (23.5). In the 800 meters, Zach Malet of Friends Central set a new meet record of 1:57.7, surpassing the previous record of 1:58.l set by Germantown Friends’ Brian Goins in 1988. Not far behind Malet were GFS’s Jasper Sneff-Nanni and David Robb taking second and third.

GFS swept the 3,200 meter run, with Max Kaulbach, Jake McKenzie (both freshmen) and junior Jonas Crimm finishing 1-2-3. Kaulbach took second in the 1,600 meter (4:35.0).