October 18, 2007 Issue                                       

©2007 The Chestnut Hill Local

GFS girls frolic past Friends foes
by TOM UTESCHER

Last Tuesday afternoon, bursts of heavy rain and even lightning cropped up in various spots around the Delaware Valley. Fairmount Park’s Belmont Plateau escaped inundation, though, and the girls cross country runners from Germantown Friends enjoyed dry trails as they breezed past a pair of fellow Friends School League franchises.

Tigers sophomore Jasia Kaulbach ran unchallenged but pushed herself to an impressive winning time, covering the somewhat hilly 3.1 mile course in 20 minutes and 35 seconds. Germantown junior Maddy Hawes was second in 21:38, and another 11th grader, Emma Padolin, finished first for Westtown School and third overall in 21:46.

Capturing six more places in the top ten, the Tigers overwhelmed Westtown, 18-41, and they were 15-50 winners over Friends Select, which had only one athlete participating.

At the end of last month, a fifth-place performance by Kaulbach paced the GFS squad to an impressive second-place finish in the team standings at the Bulldog Invitational in Delaware County. Many of the girls ran their best times in order to accomplish the feat [see 10/11 LOCAL].

Kaulbach is the sister of senior Max Kaulbach, lead runner for the Tigers’ nationally prominent boys cross country team. She already began to attract notice as a freshman last year, and has continued to progress. At last Tuesday’s FSL tri-meet, she completed the circuit just three seconds shy of her personal record at Belmont, a 20:32.

After the first runners completed a wooded downhill section of the course and emerged into the open with a little less than a mile to go, Kaulbach was 23 seconds ahead of her closest teammate, Hawes. In the final phase of the race, Kaulbach opened up a one-minute gap, while Hawes remained around eight seconds ahead of Westtown’s Padolin.

After that, a procession of GFS runners sealed the team victory for the Tigers, starting with the freshman duo of Brooke Palus (22:14) and Ashleigh Frank (22:30), who finished fourth and fifth, respectively.

Germantown junior Cheyenne Morgan was sixth (22:51), and seniors Sara Friend (23:04) and Shannon Palus (23:34) secured seventh and eighth place before the second runner for Westtown, senior Olivia Horan, came in ninth overall in 23:47. Friend and Shannon Palus are the tri-captains for the Germantown Friends squad this fall, along with classmate Nora Martin, who finished 18th overall in last Tuesday’s race with a time of 27:16.

Taking 10th and 11th place were a pair of Tiger juniors, Camilla Warren (23:49) and Katharine Celata (24:23), making for an overwhelming team showing for GFS.

Places 12-20:  12) Laura McLaughlin (WS), 24:46; 13) Robin Embic (WT), also 24:46; 14) Taya Friedan (GFS), 25:12; 15) Marcella Houghton (WT), 25:41; 16) Christie McLaughlin (WT), 26:15; 17) Danaya Etheredge (GFS) 27:01; 18) Nora Martin (GFS), 27:16; 19) Ruby Fairchild (WT), 28:22; 20) Jeannine Rosin (WT), 28:27.