PC runners top CHA for first league win

by TOM UTESCHER

Both the visiting Chestnut Hill Academy Blue Devils and host Penn Charter came into their October 7 cross-country encounter still in search of a dual-meet victory in the Inter-Ac League. It was the Quakers who claimed the elusive "W," raising their record to 1-3 by taking six of the top seven places for a 19-35 victory over CHA (0-4).

Usually a league power in the sport, Charter finished second to Germantown Academy at the 2002 Inter-Ac championships. The Quakers graduated two-time league champion Lex Mercado, however, along with Chad Flores, their number four runner at the Inter-Ac meet.

CHA's difficulties have been more enduring. The Devils finished last in the 2002 league championships, and their only true impact runner for several seasons has been current senior Evan Lodge.
Halfway through the recent 3.1-mile race at Penn Charter, Lodge was right on the shoulder of PC's Matt Gannon, but the Charter junior pulled away after that. Turning in his best time on any 5K circuit this season, Gannon won in 16 minutes, 52 seconds, while Lodge came in at 17:26.

The better part of a minute went by before anyone else crossed the line, but when they did the home fans knew they had this race in the bag, as the Quakers marched five men in a row past the stopwatch. Placing third through seventh for Penn Charter were junior Will Pappas (18:22), senior John Peat (18:34), freshman Dylan Issacson (18:48), fellow ninth grader Rick Lynn (18:59) and sophomore Ben McGovern (19:00).

Just one second behind McGovern was the second Chestnut Hill runner to finish, junior Steven Pearson, who wound up eighth overall. Rounding out the top 10 were Quakers sophomore Mark Slobodinsky (19:24) and CHA senior Tom Simone (19:27). The other scorers for the Blue Devils were senior John David Cella (19:38) and junior Mike Beautyman (20:10).

Running concurrently with the CHA-PC meet was a girls' race, in which Penn Charter (4-1) suffered its first loss of the season while visiting Episcopal Academy improved to 6-0 with a 25-30 victory. The Churchmen got a one-two finish from junior Molly Waldron, who broke the 20-minute mark at 19:49, and from senior Sarah McGuire, who came in at 20:16.

The next two places went to a pair of Quakers, sophomore Juliann Skinner (21:18) and senior Renita Sales (21:34). EA 11th-grader Katie McGuire was fifth overall in 21:36, and sixth place went to Rachel Dowling, a Penn Charter sophomore, in 21:42.