The cross country runners who finished first and third at the girls' Inter-Ac League championships last year started the 2024 league season at Germantown Academy last Tuesday afternoon. Alli DeLisi, the 2021 and 2023 Inter-AC champ who's headed for the University of North Carolina, placed second at GA last week, while Germantown's own Nieve Keitel, who finished third at the 2023 Inter-Ac's as a freshman, landed third last Tuesday.

Finishing first was a new face on the scene, Mackenzie Skelly, a Penn Charter eighth-grader who rounded the GA course in 18 minutes and 48 seconds. Her parents, Bryan and Renee, are both former Penn Charter coaches and talented runners in their own right.

Renee Skelly, a former PIAA high school state champion and a collegiate All-American, was on hand to watch her daughter's high school debut last week. She was wearing a therapeutic boot on one leg, the result of ... a dog-walking injury.

Tuesday's race was a quad meet that also involved Inter-Ac members Agnes Irwin School and Baldwin School. Irwin, appearing much improved this fall, lost to Penn Charter in dual-meet scoring, 25-32, while defeating Germantown Academy, 23-32. The PC Quakers were the overall winners, as they also knocked off GA, 21-38.

Baldwin struggled against these strong squads; the Bears' first finisher placed 27th overall.

GA head coach Diane Neubauer is back for her third season with the Patriots, while the PC varsity is under new leadership. New head coach Michael Aviles, a chemistry teacher at the school, was an assistant coach for several seasons, and prior to that he spent a dozen years at Moorestown Friends School. He is joined this fall by assistant coach Kristen Kelly, a Penn Charter faculty member in the English department.

The previous week, Penn Charter had warmed up by competing in shorter races at the annual Cherokee Challenge, hosted by Cherokee High School in Marlton, N.J. DeLisi placed second in the 3200-meter high school varsity race, and in the 2400-meter middle school race Skelly won by almost a full minute.

On the same day, September 7, the GA girls were racing at the Abington Invitational, where Keitel came in fourth. The winner there was another 10th-grader, Episcopal Academy's Kendra Williamson, the 2023 Inter-Ac runner-up.

Last Tuesday's race at GA was Mackenzie Skelly's first official 5k race, and she finished alone in first place in 18 minutes and 48 seconds. Approaching this as more of a training race, DeLisi (who has run under 18:08) placed second in 19:58, while Keitel was the first finisher for GA, coming in third in 20:17.

The next three places went to Agnes Irwin juniors Avery Brennan (4th; 20:48), Sophia Casey (5th; 21:01), and Emma Watson (6th; 21:09). Casey is the younger sister of GA basketball standout Izzy Casey, who graduated this spring and is now at Bucknell University.

Penn Charter junior Gwen Hamilton, in seventh place with a time of 21:27, was followed by GA freshman Annabelle Steckel, who was eighth in 22:16. The Quakers had sophomore Jackie Plastaris placing ninth in 22:38, and rounding out the top 10 was Irwin sophomore Maggie Dooley (22:44).

Germantown Academy's third finisher was junior Zoey Clark, and Penn Charter sophomore Chloe Greenawalt completed the team scoring for the Quakers, crossing the line in 23:30 for 12th place.

The next two spots went to PC juniors Audrey Abernethy (23:33) and Natalia Modzelewski (23:45); Charter had put all of its varsity seven among the top 14 finishers overall.

The team scoring for GA was rounded out by senior Ainsley Howard (16th; 24:15) and junior Lauren Truong (17th; 24:22).

UPDATE: On Saturday at the annual George School Invitational, Skelly, the Penn Charter eighth-grader, won in a time of 17:44.10. Her teammate, DeLisi, was second in 18:40.20, and GA's Keitel was third in 18:49.70.

Skelly's time is listed on one of the top running websites as second in Pennsylvania thus far this fall, although Virginia Kraus of Saucon Valley High School (near Bethlehem) ran her 17:40.00 at an invitational where the time was measured only down to full seconds, not 10th's or 100th's.