PAISAA Championships - Girls' Recap
A youth movement overtook the girls' individual race in the independent schools this season.
In the end, it was a freshman, Emma Zwall of Penn Charter, who captured the PAISAA title on Saturday, running 19:00 for the victory. That's about 15 seconds faster than her winning effort on the same course at the Inter-Ac Championships on Monday. It completes a terrific season for Zwall, who also won at the William Tennent Invitational.
Zwall out-dueled Germantown Academy's Isabelle Goldstein on the final loop at Belmont Plateau. Goldstein's sister Abbe (now at Harvard) won the PAISAA crown last fall, but Isabelle, a sophomore, is proving she'll be a force in the state for the next few years. She was second in 19:08.
Taking third was Annika Marcelis, an eighth grader from Germantown Friends, in 19:35. Friends' Central's Rebecca Wusinich was fourth in 19:47, and FCS also took the next two spots with Gabrielle Wilkinson (20:04) and Lydia Russell (20:05).
The Germantown Academy girls repeated as PAISAA champs. GA scored 57 points to beat out strong Friends' Central and Penn Charter squads for the win. Friends' Central edged out Penn Charter 69-70 for second place. Germantown Friends was fourth with 106 points. Ultimately, the race played out similarly to how we predicted it would based on the Inter-Ac/Friends League Champs merge.
Also coming across to help secure the win for GA were Gianna Murgia (eighth in 20:50), Kelsey O'Hara (12th in 21:04), and Anna Hennessy (13th in 21:10).
With the amount of young runners making such an impact on the PAISAA, the future is certainly bright for the independent schools of Pennsylvania.