September 27, 2007 Issue
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Classified Chestnut Hill Local Don't Miss an Issue, Tell us what you see or Winner of Two |
Big-time Tigers; GFS runners are executing an ambitious plan
Hired as boys cross country head coach by Germantown Friends School at the start of the 2004 season, Rob Hewitt watched a Tigers dual meet for the first time and saw the future. The squad was in rebuilding mode, with only a couple of returning varsity runners from the previous fall. What caught Hewitt’s eye was a trio of freshmen – Max Kaulbach, Isaac Ortiz, and Jake McKenzie – and he singled them out for Tom Myran, a fellow observer who was then the Athletic Director at the school. “I could point out those three who would emerge,” he recalled. “You could see it in their stride; they were fluid runners from the beginning.” These three athletes, who train together year-round and run many races almost side-by-side, have served as the foundation for a GFS team that has improved dramatically throughout their tenure and is now receiving recognition at the national level. Two weekends ago, Germantown surprised the pundits by finishing second at a gathering of elite teams in Hartford, Conn. The Tigers’ performance at this meet vaulted them into the national rankings, all the way to 14th in the country. At Hartford, GFS finished just one point behind the top- ranked team in the U.S., Danbury (Conn.) High School, and currently the local franchise is listed as the number three team in the Northeast Region, behind Danbury and number two North Allegheny from western Pa., and ahead of number four Brookline (Mass.) and number five Merrimack (N.H.). These numbers are from the DyeStat rankings; in a state poll issued by PennTrack.com, Germantown has taken over the top spot in PA from North Allegheny, which is also nicknamed The Tigers. For the time being, sought-after seniors Ortiz, McKenzie, and Kaulbach aren’t letting anything slip in regard to their college choices, although all are accomplished in the classroom and the word is that a number of Ivy League schools are among the interested parties. During their sophomore year, even outsiders began to sense the potential of the GFS program. Then, early in the 2006 campaign, the Tigers traveled to the heavily-attended Manhattan Invitational and established themselves as the top Pennsylvania team in this field of heavy hitters. At the Pa. Independent School Championships at the end of the season, Kaulbach became the individual state champ, and Germantown Friends took the team title. In the final statewide poll last year, the Tigers were ranked sixth, and the five teams ahead of them (including national champ Coatesville) all came from public high schools with many times the enrollment of GFS. The Tigers were slotted fourth in the Northeast Region in the 2007 pre-season poll, but the real credentials are earned out on the course, and Germantown is proving even better than predicted. The team’s first major meet was the inaugural Hartford Riverfront Festival held on September 15, an event featuring several Connecticut squads that had been placed ahead of GFS in regional forecasts and high up in the national rankings, as well. As it turned out, the Tigers breezed by national number 11 Glastonbury (Conn.) High School, 43-69, and finished just one point behind Danbury, 42-43. In addition to the efforts of seniors Kaulbach, Ortiz and McKenzie, a key to the Tigers’ rise has been the performance of four underclassmen; juniors Eddie Einbender-Luks and Fenn Hoffman, and sophomores Gus McKenzie (Jake’s brother) and Tom Waterman. The depth they bring to the team helps the Tigers outpace squads who have just a couple of individual standouts; such was the case at the recent New England event. Top-ranked Danbury’s two premier runners are seniors Matt Terry and Willie Ahearn, and for the Hartford race the home-state favorites decided not to run Terry, who was suffering from patella tendonitis. But if the Hatters thought they were still going to cruise right past little Germantown Friends, they were dead wrong. Glastonbury High School’s Donn Cabral, who beat Terry for the Connecitcut state championship last fall, won the five-kilometer Hartford meet in 15 minutes, 21.6 seconds, and Ahearn was runner-up in 15:25.5. After that, though, the GFS Tigers’ team depth – and “pack” strategy - came into play. Another Connecticut native, Xavier High School’s Forrest Misenti, checked in third at 15:42.5, then the Tigers’ senior trio nailed down fourth, fifth, and sixth place. Kaulbach led the group at 15:44.5, and was followed by Ortiz (15:54.0) and McKenzie (16:02.1). The younger McKenzie came in 10th in 16:15.6, ahead of the fourth man for Danbury and the third man for Glastonbury. The next two runners for Danbury placed 11th and 12th, helping the Hatters eke out the team victory. Finishing 18th overall in 16:56.9, Einbender-Luks completed the Tigers’ team score, while Waterman was 20th (17:01.8) and Hoffman 27th (17:48.7). “You always go out to win,” Hewitt stated, “but figuring out where we were, figuring out who we were as a team that early in the season was just as important as winning, if not more important. It was a great opportunity for us to shake the rust out and identify ourselves as a team.” Originally from Washington Township, NJ, Hewitt ran for St. Joseph’s University and now teaches at a business school in center city Philadelphia. In addition to coaching cross country at GFS, he runs the winter track program, and works with the Tigers’ distance runners during the regular track season in the spring. How It All Began None of Germantown’s three senior leaders have elaborate running pedigrees. McKenzie related, “My Mom ran casually and I did the Race For The Cure with her one year, and that sort of got me into running. I was always pretty quick so I thought I’d be good at it.” Kaulbach’s mother was a crew coxswain, while his father was a cross country skier who also played soccer, as did his father before him. Ortiz mentioned, “I think a distant uncle on my mother’s side ran half-marathons, but there was no real direct influence.” All of them were drawn to cross country towards the end of their middle school years, encouraged by an inkling of their abilities while also experiencing an intangible attraction. “It’s got a completely different dynamic, a different feeling from every other sport I’ve ever tried,” Kaulbach commented. “It’s more of a lifestyle choice; you have to make sure you’re healthy all the time.” Having always enjoyed math and science in the classroom, he pointed out that there’s a pleasing empirical aspect to cross country: “You can really connect your performance in a race with the preparation you did beforehand. You can easily tell if what you’re doing in practice is helping you improve.” Like his classmates, Ortiz had played soccer at an early age, and he also tried wrestling for a spell. He remarked, “I’d say my favorite aspect of cross country, and something that’s unique about it, is going on a run with a group of guys and being able to talk about how your day went and what you’re thinking about. On a cross country team you have a core group - usually your top seven - and over three or four years you get to know them really well.” Ortiz also enjoys the fact that the action is not confined to a field or court, observing, “There are no whistles, no horns going off, and you can just explore the trails in the woods. You can run around in the city, go around in Manayunk or up in Chestnut Hill.” In a similar vein, McKenzie asserted, “Cross country is more pure than anything else. It’s just you and the course, and getting from one place to another. It’s primitive in a good way; it’s you finding out what you’re capable of.” Three years ago, the talented trio and Germantown’s new coach recognized in each other a desire to push the limits of the program. “We realized at the beginning that we were definitely building towards something,” Kaulbach said. “It was mainly a matter of making sure that everybody was more serious. We did a lot more mileage, and more consistent mileage, than we were doing before.” Ortiz added, “Part of Rob’s philosophy is running in all the school seasons [cross country, indoor and outdoor track] plus the summer, to get the most out of the whole year in terms of building up fitness.” The three classmates began to get together outside of school for training runs. Jake McKenzie’s brother Gus took up the sport, and so did Kaulbach’s sister Jasia, now a sophomore and a standout in her own right. As a result, the GFS harriers seldom had to experience the proverbial loneliness of the long-distance runner. “It’s great when you’re in a race and you can always look around you and Max and Jake are right there,” Ortiz said. “If they’re running the race really hard, or starting to surge at a certain point, I have the confidence that I can do that, too, because I’m doing the same training as they are.” “That’s the advantage that our team has,” McKenzie concurs, “that we have three legitimate frontrunners.” Because they’re close in ability, they almost always run as a pack for two miles or so in the typical five-kilometer (3.1-mile) race. Then, depending upon the situation, Kaulbach often makes a move to pull ahead for the finishing stage. “Rob has no overarching strategy that he’d have us use in every case; it really depends on the race,” Kaulbach noted. Hewitt said, “We can rely on those three [seniors] always being at or near the front. It helps us significantly because it takes some pressure off the guys behind them; they know we’ll always have those three up there helping us gain that early advantage over almost anybody we run against. “That way, the younger guys can just focus just on their own job in the race,” the coach went on. “Up in Hartford, Gus had a great run. He’s tough, a grinder. Eddie ran a fantastic race; I told him to try and stay with Gus, not realizing that Gus would be quite that fast.” On October 13, Germantown will return to the Manhattan Invitational, a monster meet in which the field will be divided into seven different races in the varsity boys division alone. The Tigers’ ultimate goal is to maintain a high ranking throughout the fall and to excel at the Nike Northeast Regional Championships on November 24. If they do well there, they’ll be racing on the West Coast exactly one week later, participating in the Nike‚ Team Nationals in Portland, Ore. It would be a fitting conclusion to a remarkable four-year run for the GFS seniors. It has long been the lament of cross country runners that no matter what their achievements, they’re overshadowed by the activities of their school’s football team, even if the latter group has done little of note. Since Germantown Friends long ago gave up the pigskin pastime, that’s not an issue, and the accomplishments of the Tigers’ distance men are celebrated around campus with undiluted enthusiasm. “It definitely helps not having one sport that sort of dominates everything else,” McKenzie said, adding, “Kids at GFS are very supportive of all the activities, not just sports, but drama and music, and other things.” He then reflected, “Cross country’s never really been about getting recognition from other people. It’s a very personal thing.” This fall, though, the Tigers will just have to tolerate being the focus of statewide, regional, and now, national interest.
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