Harriton harriers enjoy strong opening week

The Harriton High School cross-country teams had a strong opening week. On Sept. 9, the Harriton boys opened up the season 3-0 with wins over Haverford (25-30), Lower Merion (21-34), and Marple Newtown (15-48).  The Harriton girls came up just a point short of a similar start in a loss to Lower Merion (27-28), but were able to best both Haverford (22-33) and Marple Newtown (15-50).

On Sept. 12, both teams had an impressive day at the Bulldog Invitational, where the varsity squads placed second in both the boys and girls small school division to Bishop Shanahan despite missing several key runners due to ACT testing.  The boys had seven medal winners in their varsity race: senior Jonah Gillespie-Sickmen (eighth), junior Bruce Herriott (ninth), junior Jan Terwiesch (18th), senior Connor Todd (19th), sophomore Shane Smolenski (26th), junior Etan Ginsberg (29th) and sophomore Derek Goss (30th).  The girls had six medal winners: junior Tasha Greene (fourth), freshman Michelle Qin (seventh), junior Ali Zamsky (eighth), junior Fiona Maruca (13th), sophomore Devon McClain (19th) and junior Samantha Feingold (29th).  In total, 27 Harriton athletes earned medals across the three divisions of races (Novice, JV, Varsity).

Harriton cross-country coach Brian Klick said, “This is the best the team has looked coming off of its summer training since I have been here. Coach [Boris] Oden, Coach Tara [Klick] and I are excited to see this trend of hard work continue throughout the season and look forward to watching it pay off as we progress throughout the fall.”