Behind the goal, CHA’s Evan Booker (right) sets a pick on a Shipley defenseman to free up teammate Matt Munro (with ball, left).

Officially, Chestnut Hill Academy’s lacrosse team owns an overall record of 4-3, but the Blue Devils like to think of themselves as still “perfect in Pennsylvania”.

The CHA stickmen won three games against Philadelphia-area rivals in mid-March, then lost to three tough out-of-state squads on a training trip to Florida during spring break. They entered the fourth “W” in their season ledger last Saturday afternoon, breaking out of a 1-1 halftime tie to defeat the visiting Shipley School Gators, 7-4.

The Devils received two goals apiece from seniors Matt Munro, Greg Quillian and Dan Rosen, and sophomore goalkeeper Corbin Booker recorded nine saves in the victory. Visiting goalie Jack Tannenbaum made eight stops for Shipley, which suffered its first loss in three outings so far this spring.

There will be no crew races on the Schuylkill this Sunday due to the Easter holiday, and the break in the schedule provides a demarcation line between the two major portions of the rowing season. Only one more “regular-season” Manny Flick regatta remains, and then rowers head into the prestigious “medal” races, starting with the Philadelphia City Championships on May 3.

After a spring break training trip to a lacrosse camp in Orlando, Fla., the Springside Lions returned to the harsh reality of the Northeastern U.S. last week.

Weather conditions were rainy and chilly for the sticksters’ home opener last Wednesday, and the Lions, regrouping after graduating eight starters from their 2008 squad, were starting off their Girls Inter-Ac League campaign by hosting nationally-ranked Episcopal Academy.

In a sprint at the end of the distance medley relay, CHA freshman Dustin Wilson (right) battles to hold his lead over Malvern Prep senior Matt McCullough.

With around a dozen schools normally in attendance, the annual Chestnut Hill Academy Relays provide a welcome contrast to some of the crowded mega-meets held at the start of track-and-field season.

In the 2009 edition of the event last Saturday the host Blue Devils welcomed all of their Inter-Ac colleagues save Haverford School, along with Germantown Friends and Friends Central, and several teams from the northern division of the Philadelphia Catholic League. As usual, not everyone had their top talent on the track; GFS still had athletes away on spring break, a number of juniors including CHA speedster Ibraheim Campbell were taking the ACT exam, and an early-season injury deprived Penn Charter of one of its top sprinters, Dareem David.

Even if the event was for entertainment purposes only, it did succeed at that, and the highlight for Chestnut Hill was a match-up in the distance medley relay anchor leg between its freshman star Dustin Wilson and Malvern’s Matt McCullough, a senior who had beaten Wilson for the Inter-Ac cross country title last fall.