GA, Malvern winners at Inter-Ac meet

by TOM UTESCHER

With female runners returning to the 3.1-mile course at Chestnut Academy on Monday of last week, the Inter-Ac League held its first unified cross country championship meet since the mid-1990's.

Malvern Prep, which in 2003 took the boys' team title by 18 points over Germantown Academy, won with even greater ease this time around, beating runner-up Episcopal Academy, 26-69, while GA finished third with 72 points.

Friars junior Brian Duffy won in 16 minutes, 56.9 seconds, not far off of the league record of 16:54.8 established by Penn Charter's Lex Mercado in 2002. Haverford came in fourth in the team scoring this year with 84 points, and was followed by Penn Charter, with 104, and host Chestnut Hill, with 187.

GA junior Jenna Washabaugh, who led the Patriots to an undefeated record in Girls Inter-Ac dual meets this fall, was hampered by a chronic hip ailment in last week's championship, and finished ninth overall. A runner she had beaten just six days earlier in a dual meet, Notre Dame Academy's Stephanie Hayden, won the race in 20:37.3. Hayden, also a junior, just began running cross country this fall, and because the course at CHA had been altered slightly since the last time the girls ran there, Hayden's time stands as the current course record.

GA still won the team title, as eighth grader J.D. Whitman came in second overall at 21:11 and senior Niki Finelli (21:32) finished fourth to help the Patriots prevail against defending champ Episcopal, 50-56. Third, with 78 points, was Notre Dame, followed by Agnes Irwin (98), Penn Charter (103), Shipley (129), and Baldwin (157).

On the boys' side, Malvern's roll probably isn't over yet, since only one of the five Friars who placed in the top nine is a senior. GA collected fifth and seventh place in the meet thanks to a pair of upperclassmen, Stuart Udis (17:27) and Yeremiah Shemuale (17:29). Sophomore Dillon Isaacson was the first Penn Charter runner to the wire, placing tenth in 17:50. Senior Donald Smith of GA was 12^th (17:57), and while PC 12^th graders Matt Gannon (18:21) and Will Pappas (18:24) came in 17^th and 18^th, respectively.

The first Chestnut Hill Academy runner to appear was Steve Pearson, a senior who took 34^th place in 19:47. The next Blue Devil finisher was freshman Ned Cunningham, who was 36^th in 21:15.

For the Germantown Academy girls, the efforts of Whitman, Finelli, and Washabaugh were backed up by seniors Carolyn Burnett (13^th; 22:21) and Christina Mack (22^nd; 23:17). Leading the way for Penn Charter, Julianne Skinner placed seventh in 21:57, and her junior classmate Rachel Dowling was eighth in 22:15. Shipley School senior Hilary Dykes (21:28) had come in third between GA's Whitman and Finelli, while league runner-up Episcopal was paced by a fifth-place performance by Molly Waldron and a sixth-place showing by Katie Maguire, 12^th graders who shared a time of 21:45.