At Belmont Plateau last Tuesday, the cross country teams from Penn Charter had an outstanding afternoon at the 2024 Inter-Ac League cross country championships.

The Quakers produced the individual winners in both the boys' and girls' varsity races, and in the team competition PC won the girls' championship and came in a close second in the boys' competition.

Senior T.J. Zwall, whose older sister Emma took two league titles, won the boys' race in a time of 15 minutes, 56.2 seconds, comfortably ahead of runner-up Brock Yoder, who bagged second place for Malvern Prep in 16:11.0. Just recently, Zwall firmed up his plans to attend Williams College.

Defending Inter-Ac team champ Episcopal Academy, while not as dominant as in recent past years, had its leader secure third place and positioned its other four scorers in the top 10, netting a winning total of 32 points to PC's 39.

Charter's eighth-grade phenom, Mackenzie Skelly, won the girls' race by half-a-minute, clocking in at 18:02.0 while Episcopal sophomore Kendra Williamson was second in 18:33.7. Defending individual champ Alli DeLisi, a senior who'll continue her career at the University of North Carolina, was third in 19:24.2.

In 2023, the Academy of Notre Dame beat out Penn Charter for the team crown by seven points to win for the second year in a row. This time, the PC girls made sure it wasn't close, outscoring the Irish 30-69. The Quakers had four of their five scorers in the top five, and the fifth came in 17th overall.

After the team leaders came Agnes Irwin School (80 points), Episcopal (82), Germantown Academy (100), Springside Chestnut Hill (144), and Baldwin School (209).

In the boys' team standings, Episcopal and PC were followed by Malvern (75), GA (102), Haverford School (113), and SCH (170).

After Zwall, Penn Charter put two other runners in the top 10, senior Nate Johnson (fifth; 16:28.5) and sophomore Matthew Dunn (seventh; 16:47.3). The Quakers' team score was rounded out by eighth-grader Nate Viands (12th; 17:36.7) and junior Ben Burger (14th; 17:54.6).

Episcopal's lead runner, junior Curtis Conner, took third place in 16:16.6, and the Churchmen had their other scorers finish fourth, sixth, ninth and 10th, allowing them to retain the team title.

After EA's fifth scorer came Germantown Academy's first runner, sophomore Tyler Benson (11th; 17:32.2). Also in the top 20 for the Patriots were two juniors, Walter Mulroy (15th; 17:58.1) and Evan Badami (16th; 17:59.4). GA's fourth and fifth finishers came in 29th and 31st.

SCH was led by Connor Brown, who placed 17th in 18:00.8, and next was fellow senior Joey Trotter, who came in 36th in 20:09.2. The Blue Devils also scored places 38, 39, and 40.

PC's Skelly was the clear favorite in the girls' race. She's the fastest scholastic runner in Pennsylvania, but the eighth-grader's most impressive achievement thus far came when she competed in field of collegiate runners in late September. Racing much older competitors at the Adidas X-C Challenge in North Carolina, she placed 13th overall in a time of 17:16.5.

After she breezed to victory in the Inter-Ac meet and DeLisi took third for the Quakers, a fourth-place finish by sophomore Marlie Klein (19:36.4) and a fifth-place showing for junior Gwen Hamilton (19:37.6) had Charter well on the way toward the team championship.

Sixth place went to GA sophomore Nieve Keitel (19:45.8), and she was followed by three Agnes Irwin athletes and then a string of four runners from defending champ Notre Dame.

Springside Chestnut Hill's leader, sophomore Claire Lynch, landed 14th in 21:28.4, just ahead of a freshman from Episcopal. Germantown Academy's second finisher, junior Zoey Clark, came in 16th in 21:56.8.

Penn Charter's team victory then became official when sophomore Jackie Plastaras secured 17th place in 21:59.5, giving the Quakers an impressive team score of 30.

After Keitel and Clark led the way for GA, the Patriots' team total featured a trio of runners who finished together in 25th through 27th place.

After Lynch, SCH lodged one other runner in the top 20. This was another 10th-grader, Avni Segrave-Daly, who ended up 20th in 22:48.9. Finishers in the 31st, 39th, and 40th spots allowed the Blue Devils to place ahead of Baldwin in the team standings.