March 22, 2007 Issue                                       

©2007 The Chestnut Hill Local

Winter’s return chills track tune-up
by TOM UTESCHER

When Springside School and Penn Charter runners were having their lunch last Thursday, the air outside was an unseasonable 67 degrees. When the Lions and Quakers met for a scrimmage on the Chestnut Hill Academy track a few hours later, it was a different story, as temperatures plunged in advance of Friday’s “wintery mix” weather event.

Still, it was a useful exercise for the two teams (who were joined by Delaware Country Christian School for the training session), as the athletes got their first taste of interscholastic competition.

It was an entirely new experience for Springside’s Deb Schreffler, who is making her debut as the Lions’ head coach.

“We’ve seen them in the gym and in the fitness center,” she said, “but this is the first time out on the track. These girls showed me they have a lot of heart. We have a very young team and I think there’s a lot of potential here.”

Schreffler, a Springside/CHA parent who was a long jumper and sprinter in high school and college, became interested in working with the track team after serving as an assistant coach for the tennis squad last fall.

“It was such a great experience that I asked [athletic director] Debbie Maine if there was any other way I could help out,” she said.

Former head coach Michelle Brooks-Brown is still with the team as an assistant coach, and knows the Lions’ personnel thoroughly.

Looking to the season ahead, she said “I expect big things from [senior] Kim Ashby, who’s been with the team since she’s been in eighth-grade. I’d like to see her get back her Inter-Ac title in the 400, and I think she can go over five feet in the high jump.”

Ashby, who will attend Columbia University, won the 400 meters at the 2005 league championships, and was third last year.

“I think Kelsey Mullin has the potential to improve her time in the 300 hurdles,” Brooks-Brown continued, “and I believe that Grayce Selig has a good shot at breaking our school record in the 800 [a mark of two minutes, 38 seconds set in 1999].”

Mullin is a junior, and Selig is a senior headed for Brandeis University.

Senior Gabs Lantieri looks like she might emerge as Springside’s top shot-putter, and junior Macrina Cooper-White will give it a go in the distance events after a solid cross-country season last fall.

Springside is also looking for good things from sprinter Kelli Parks, who was hampered by injury at times during her freshman season. The Lions will also get help in the sprints and jumps from a trio of talented eighth graders who’ve been brought up to the varsity team: Natalie Bates, Gabi Novo, and Cali Wilder.

Penn Charter performed at last Thursday’s scrimmage without senior JaLia Moody, who was away on a college visit. In 2006, she was the Inter-Ac champion in both the 100 and 200 dash.

“We have really strong sprinting coming back from last year,” noted PC coach Liz Fleming.

Last spring’s freshman sensation, Khaaleedah Smith, is back as a seasoned sophomore to defend her league title in the 400, and to challenge Moody in the 200, where Smith took the silver medal in 2006.

Both girls were part of a highly-successful 4 x 400 meter relay team for the Quakers last season. Current juniors Lisa Fugelo and Sierra Tishgart made up the rest of the quartet, which finished second to Maryland’s Potomac High School in the prep school category at the Penn Relays. Charter’s time of 4:09.11 was the best of the independent schools in the Philadelphia area, and was a new school record, as well.

Other speedsters are returning sophomore Marquessa Gray, and freshmen Adjoa Ntoso and Natasha Prentice.

“Natasha is one of our top soccer players, and I expect her to do well on the track,” Fleming said. “We also have good jumpers coming back, and we now also have Saudiah Lawrence, who is a spectacular jumper and a good runner also.”

Quakers sophomore Kirby Dixon was an Inter-Ac silver medalist in both the high jump and long jump in 2006, and last year Lawrence was one of the top middle-schoolers in the nation in the triple jump.

“In distance, we’re a little thin, as we have been for years,” Fleming admitted. “Notre Dame and GA are going to be strong again there, although we might have a couple girls who could sneak up and score.

“In pole vault,” she continued, “I don’t know if anyone’s really going to challenge J.D. Whitman at 10 feet [the GA junior won the league last year at 10’0.5”], but we’ve got two girls who could get up around eight feet and get some points for us.”

At the 2006 Girls Inter-Ac Championships, Germantown Academy won with 117 points, Charter was second with 96.5, and Springside was third with 41.5.