On Thursday, May 8 and Saturday, May 10, the GDS men’s and women’s track and field teams competed in the Mid-Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAC) and Independent School League (ISL) championships. The men’s team finished first of seven schools in the MAC with 171 points, beating Sidwell Friends School by five points. The women’s team placed sixth of 15 schools in the ISL.
According to head coach Anthony Belber, before the meet, the GDS coaches calculated that their men’s team would lose to Sidwell by 25 points even if every athlete matched their best performance this season.
“We knew we had athletes that were ready to exceed their best performance of the year,” Belber said. “We held out some hope that we might be able to surprise ourselves and some other teams.”
One of those surprises came from senior Sander Kearns, who placed second of 11 in the high jump, despite having only competed in the event twice prior. Freshman Liam Ireri also set a new personal best in shot put at 12.14 meters, placing fifth of 14 and earning an additional two points for the team.
The top six athletes in MAC events are the only ones who earn points for the team; the top eight women’s athletes earn points in ISL events.
“I think what won us the MAC is that some of the people went above and beyond what they were supposed to do,” junior James Fitzgibbons said. Fitzgibbons was part of the 4×400 relay team, which placed first in their event and set a new personal best of 3:24.
The men’s team took first place in three other events. Senior Andrew Bennett won the 3200-meter race, and seniors Andrew Leopold and Amit Tate won the 300-meter and 110-meter hurdle races, respectively. In both hurdle races, GDS runners placed first, second and third.
“I was very impressed by the way a lot of people who aren’t categorized as stars stepped up and had great days for us,” Belber said.
According to Belber, sophomores Ben Altschuler and Justin Heffernan are two of those runners—they both scored points in the slower heats of their races. Faster heats are usually seeded with the top runners, so athletes in slower heats are rarely expected to place high enough to score points. But Altschuler placed fifth of 17 runners in the 1600-meter race, and Heffernan placed sixth of 13 in the 800-meter race. (Altschuler is a reporter for the Bit. He did not read or edit this article prior to publication.)
The women’s team also delivered a strong showing across multiple events. One standout performance came from freshman Zoe Phelps, who placed first in the triple jump and set a personal best of 11.20 meters. Junior Shira Wenthe placed third in the 3200-meter race and competed on the 4×800 relay team, which also finished third. Senior Alexandra Solomon contributed across the board, competing in five different events and placing in the top eight in each one of them.
“It’s kind of just a testament to all the hard work that we put in,” Wenthe said. “I think the fact that across all the different areas of the sport we’re able to perform really well is a really great thing.”
In the fall, the men’s cross country team won the MAC banner and the women’s team placed fourth of 14 in the ISL.
Ten seniors will graduate from the women’s team this year. Next year, Wenthe hopes to recruit more runners to the women’s team.
“The GDS running community is really special, and I think that there are a lot of people who would love to be involved in it,” Wenthe said.
Both the men’s and women’s teams will compete in the District of Columbia State Athletic Association (DCSAA) Championships on Wednesday, May 20 and Thursday, May 21.