GA brings in boys of SCH and Haverford for Saturday race

by Tom Utescher
Posted 11/10/20

Germantown Academy's cross-country team had already hosted the lads of Haverford School for a dual meet on the Inter-Ac League's opening day on October 31, and last Saturday the Patriots faced the …

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GA brings in boys of SCH and Haverford for Saturday race

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Germantown Academy's cross-country team had already hosted the lads of Haverford School for a dual meet on the Inter-Ac League's opening day on October 31, and last Saturday the Patriots faced the Fords again along with a third league franchise, Springside Chestnut Hill Academy.

Once again, Haverford got by GA, winning 33-22 this time, while the Pats ran past the SCH Blue Devils, 40-17. The Fords defeated the Devils by the same score in a dual meet format.

Germantown's senior standout, Robert DiDonato, did not run in either Inter-Ac meet over the past two weekends. In mid-October at GA, the Stanford University recruit decided to go for a PR at 5000 meters, not on the cross country course, but on the school's track. Like so many other athletes, he'd seen his outdoor track season curtailed by COVID-19 last spring.

His recent run was formally timed and officiated, and to make it a true race Haverford senior A.J. Sanford came over to compete with DiDonato. The result for the Patriots senior was a current U.S. number one time of 14 minutes and 25.40 seconds. Just an observer at last Saturday's meet on his school's campus, DiDonato said he'll definitely be back on the X-C course this coming weekend for GA-PC Day.

The Fords' Sanford won the recent tri-meet in a time of 17:16.0, just over two seconds ahead of GA junior Alex Badami (17:18.3). SCH's lead runner, sophomore Hans Bode, came in ninth overall in 19.35.4. The Blue Devils were missing a runner who had traveled to Canada and has not yet been allowed to recross the border due to Coronavirus restrictions.

Haverford got a leg up on GA by having a trio of runners finish third, fourth and fifth, then the Patriots sent across their own three-man wave in the form of junior Artharv Awasthi (sixth; 19:02.6), sophomore Chaz Murgia (seventh; 19:06.9), and junior Patrick Tronoski (eighth; 19:29.9). Right after Bode became the first Blue Devil to finish, his junior teammate Sammy Meyer completed the top 10 (19:46.3), holding off 11th- place Ned Cutler of Haverford (19:48.3). Nevertheless, Cutler became the final scorer for the victorious Fords.

Germantown's team score was locked in by senior Colin Brereton, who landed 12th and became the last athlete to complete the circuit in under 20 minutes (19:59.6).

Next came the number three and four runners for Springside Chestnut Hill, junior Aden Vallasis (13th; 20:21.8) and senior Peter Humphreys (14th; 20:31.5). Six more Haverford runners and two more GA Patriots crossed the finish line before SCH finalized its official score courtesy of freshman Matt Rizzo. He came in 23rd overall (22:04.2), but produced 12 points in the team scoring due to the displacement process.