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Sports photographer Patty Morgan has turned her enthusiasm and knowledge for track and field and cross-country into a life-long passion. She continues to showcase both indoor and outdoor events at the high school and collegiate level bringing visual appreciation to these stellar student athletes through her lens. Morgan wanted to do more to highlight this sport and its athletes. Through her column, On Track with Patty Morgan, she hopes to give audiences a more personal experience to the hard work, training, and dedication of these athletes.

PHILADELPHIA - The Inter-Ac and Friends Schools League ended their cross country season at the PAISSA Championships on a beautiful day out at Belmont Plateau this past October. The varsity girls team championship went to the young ladies of the Academy of Notre Dame with 40 points after winning the Inter-Ac championship the week before with 28 points.

Both weeks, the top finisher for the Irish was senior Therese Trainer. Her run at the Carlisle Invitational of 18:58.80 was her fastest time this past season. 

As a team the young ladies of Penn Charter came in second to Notre Dame both weeks. The Penn Charter team consists of DeLisi, Sam Jaffe, Alex Jaffe, Grace Neuwirth, Veronica Lentz, Natalia Modzelewski and Michaela Poland.

Germantown Friends senior Katya Henisz finished 3rd at the PAISSA championships and led her team to an overall 3rd place finish. As a team the Tigers earned the 1st place team title with 32 points at the FSL Championship but individually she would place 2nd. For her best time of the season Henisz ran a PR 5k time of 18:58.20 at Paul Short. 

Friends Central junior Quin Stovall placed 1st at the FSL Championship with 20:46.73 and earned a 6th place finish at PAISSA’s with a time of 20:42.10. The Shipley School's Dagny Shiffler placed 4th at PAISSA’s after coming in 3rd at the FSL Championships with a time of 21:54.89. Her PR for the season came at The George School Invitational back in September with 20:28.30.

For the boys in the Independent School Leagues the top finishers all around have to be the guys from Episcopal Academy. At PAISAA’s all seven runners placed in the top 12 spots with Dakin Ebmeyer taking the individual title with 16:09.20. 

EA's team earned 1st place with 20 points and consisted of Ebmeyer, Aidan McHugh, Dawson French, Connor Hanrahan, Michael Woolery, Ethan Zhou and Nicky Criville. They also earned the team championship title at Inter-Ac championships with Woolery taking the top spot 16:27.50.

Woolery ran a PR 15:29.00 at the Paul Short Invitational. Woolery and McHugh currently rank in the top 20 in the entire state of PA.

Germantown Friends School's Simon Donovan is the closest independent school runner standing at 21st place in PA with 15:29.10 also from Paul Short Run. Donovan was 2nd at PAISAA’s as was the GFS team with 72 total points. The top three runners at the Friends Schools League championships included Donovan, PJ Kresloff and Shuford Kirk. The GFS team placed 1st with 28 points at the FSL Championships and included Donovan, Kresloff, Kirk, Jiasheng Shi, Angus McIlvain, Leo Gave and Finn Busser.

The gentlemen of Penn Charter placed 3rd at PAISAA’s and 2nd at the Inter-Ac championships. The team consisted of T.J. Zwall, Wesley Trautwein, Jack Frank, Nate Johnson, James Glomb, Peyton Burnett and Liam Stewart.

In PCL cross country the gentlemen from La Salle were Philadelphia Catholic League boys champions with 18 points and the next closest team finish was Father Judge with 73 points. Drew Brill, Cole Casadei and Ryan McGinley placed 1-3 . Brill ran a PR 15:19.10 at Paul Short, placed 1st at the D12 championships and earned 7th at the PIAA XC state championships in Hershey running 16:28.60 in the AAA boys championship.

The gentlemen from Saint Joseph's Prep rounded out the top three finishers at the 2022 PCL cross country championship with 93 points. 

The ladies of Lansdale Catholic secured the 2022 PCL cross country girls team championship title on Saturday, Oct. 22, with 48 points. Sophomore Kate McManus placed 2nd with a time of 21:56.9. Archbishop Ryan placed second with 53 total team points and Conwell-Egan placed third with 75 points. 

In AA girls, Archbishop Wood freshman Gwen Hamilton made her mark with a 1st place finish in the PCL championship and in the D12 championship. 

The ladies from Lansdale Catholic were D12 AA team champions with 40 points with Archbishop Ryan and Bonner & Prendie rounding out the top three teams.

Click here for additional links from Patty Morgan highlighting the 2023 Indoor and 2023 Outdoor Track and Field seasons!