May 22, 2008 Issue                                       

©2007 The Chestnut Hill Local

GFS girls’ track victory
by Justin Goldman

The GFS girls team did not have to sweat as much as the boys did en route to its fifth straight league title. The Tigers got a great team effort and really showed their depth in the victory. GFS won 137-80, and at no moment was the meet in question. This victory gave Germantown Friends 100 Friends League Titles in the history of the school.

“This makes five in a row for the school,” said GFS head coach Claire Duncan. “This is my second year here and it’s great to see a lot more of the people that I’ve gotten to really see work. To see what they have gone through is amazing.”

Even with the victory a bit of a foregone conclusion, there was no way that Duncan was going to take anything for granted.

“I’m always nervous,” she said. “At the end of the 4x400 relay, they had some trouble with the scoring, and I wasn’t going to guarantee anything. It (the result) wasn’t really in jeopardy, and we knew that it shouldn’t have been, but you never know.”

There really was no reason to be nervous. The Tigers got seven first place finishes in the meet, including a meet record in the high jump by Talitha Smith. Smith set a new standard with a jump of 5’5”. Jasia Kaulbach paced the 1600 and 3200 meter races with times of 5:23.84 and 12:01.34. Kaulbalch won the 1600 in exciting fashion, holding off Westtown’s Emily Lamb in the end. Kendra Mayberry took second in the 3200, showing the Tiger’s dominance in that event.

Jasmine West also put her stamp on the meet with wins in the 110 high hurdles and the triple jump.

For GFS, this win has been a culmination of what the team has been doing throughout the season. It has shown extreme character and has worked extremely hard to achieve the goals it has achieved.

“These girls are really serious about their times,” Duncan said. “A lot of them have set their sites on Nationals, whether it’s this year or in the next couple years. We lose four girls total in the senior class, and the heart of our point scorers will return next season. We have a very, very driven group of girls, and it’s not very hard to make it work.”

Despite the team’s sights on some higher goals, it still remains focused and hungry and wants to take care of business in the league. It is its willingness to accept coaching and work hard that has made them so successful.

“I write the workouts and ask them for their efforts and they are more than willing to give them,” Duncan said. “As the season progressed and the meets started picking up, they were asking if they could do more hard workouts. More often my problem is trying to tell girls when to take it easy or take a day off which is a great dilemma to have.”

In this meet, there was no question that the Tigers would take any races off. Early on Bouyeh Zulu took second in the 100 meters, and GFS once again showed its depth when Maddy Hawes and Brooke Paulus finished second and third in the 800 meter race respectively.

However the sight of the day came when Maddy McFerrin literally fell through the finish line during the second heat of the 200 meter race. McFerrin did not place in the event, but her efforts were noticed and recognized by everyone.

This win was especially special for Duncan, who graduated from Friends Central (where the meet was held) in 2001.

“We like to win anywhere, whether it’s here or at home,” she said. “But it is nice to come back here and win. It feels like a bit of a homecoming for me.”

And now, don’t expect the Tigers to go away anytime soon. With most of their core returning next season, they will definitely be right back at the top, looking to another championship to the mantle.