Sports Zone: Winter Sports Wrap-Up

Boys track and girls track and wrestling had a lot to brag about during Penn Charter's winter athletics season. Read on for details of the whole slate of teams.

GIRLS INDOOR TRACK

It was a season for the ages for the Quakers, who repeated as both Pennsylvania Independent Schools Athletic Association (PAISAA) and Pennsylvania Track & Field Coaches Association (PTFCA) champions. School records fell like dominoes throughout the season—Marlie Klein broke the PC record for the indoor one-mile run in late January, only for Mackenzie Skelly to break that mark two weeks later at the PAISAA Championships. Skelly also broke the school record in the two-mile run the same day with the fastest time in the event’s history. Additional records set at the PAISAA event came from Keagan Seth (meet and school records, high jump); Zsuzsi Pollock (school record, shot put); and Logan Lloyd (meet record, 200-meter run). 

The team’s excellence was not limited to one or two meets. Michaela Poland broke the school record in the 400-meter indoor run early in the season. On the relay side, the distance medley quartet of Skelly, Klein, Lloyd and Gwen Hamilton recorded the fastest time for a Pennsylvania relay team, as well as the second-fastest time nationally, at the Virginia Showcase in mid-January. Two weeks later, the 4x800 team of Skelly, Klein, Hamilton and Abby Downin set a Pennsylvania state record at the 118th Millrose Games in New York City. At the PTFCA Indoor State Championship on March 1, Hamilton became a two-time state champion, winning the 800-meter run and joining Downin, Tisa Edwards and Beatrice O’Connell on the victorious distance medley relay team.

BOYS INDOOR TRACK

The boys indoor team also enjoyed an outstanding winter, with a definitive highlight being the school record in the 4x400 relay event being broken five separate times. First, Lamir Calloway, Nate Keller, Matthew Furda and Ethan Leggett ran a 3:34.71 in January. Two weeks later, Calloway, Kevin White, Ryan Musial and Benny Hsu took the record down for the second time with a mark of 3:33.90. White, Hsu, Keller and Christian Downs then ran a 3:33.52 at a meet the first week of February, only for the record to fall a fourth time a mere 10 minutes later when Musial, Calloway, Furda and Elijah Kalam Id-Din shaved the time down to 3:33.20. Finally, it was the quartet of Keller, Calloway, Furda and Leggett that smashed the record  for a fifth and final occurrence, this time by nearly six seconds with a posted time of 3:27.63 on Feb. 6.

It wasn’t only 4x400 relay combinations that achieved success, as the 4x200 team of Kalam Id-Din, Keller, Furda and Leggett set a school record with a time of 1:29.06, also on Feb. 6. Individually, Dunn set a new program record in the 3000-meter run in February before following that up with a third-place finish in the two-mile run at the Eastern State Championships in New York City on March 3.

WRESTLING

Penn Charter also enjoyed big success on the wrestling mat, finishing 20-4 overall and 3-2 in the Inter-Ac League, good for a third place finish. The Quakers captured first place at the Griffin-Panther Duals in December as well as the Pequea Valley Duals in late January. The team defended its home turf on Jan. 17 when PC won the Penn Charter Invitational, an on-campus event featuring 14 other schools. Other strong showings included third-place finishes at both the 16-team Tommy Legge Memorial in Virginia to ring in the New Year, as well as at PA Prep States along with 18 other schools in mid-February. Senior Simon Bethea had the best individual finish at PA Prep States, placing third at 175 pounds, while five other Quakers nabbed fourth-place finishes. 

Bethea (175), along with fellow seniors Augie Turner (190) and Tristen Padget (215) and sophomore Matteo Pritchett (144) were all named to the all-league second team, with Padget finishing his career four wins shy of 100. Senior Izzy Steinbock wrestled to a fourth-place finish at National Girls Preps in late February, making her Penn Charter’s first female All-American wrestler. The future of the program certainly looks bright too, with eighth grader Ryan Filoon leading the team with 42 wins, while freshman Parker Band won 31 matches.

BOYS BASKETBALL

The 2025-26 season marked the first time in five years that Penn Charter did not win an Inter-Ac championship, though there were still significant victories claimed during a 15-win season that saw a younger Quakers group finish tied for third in the Inter-Ac. The team advanced to the PAISAA Tournament quarterfinals before falling to Westtown School in the final game of the season. Sophomore Carter Smith was a first team all-league selection after averaging 19.9 points, 5.8 rebounds, 4.7 assists and 1.9 steals per game. Smith enjoyed a historic triple-double performance of 17 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists in a January game against Hun School. Kasey Fleming also had a senior season to remember, averaging 17.2 points, 4.0 rebounds, 2.9 assists and 1.7 steals per game while recording the 1,000th point of his career in a win over Kiski School. 

GIRLS BASKETBALL

The girls basketball squad finished the season with 11 wins, finishing fifth in a very strong Inter-Ac while also making it to the PAISAA Tournament quarterfinals, where the Quakers endured a hard-fought five-point loss to league rival Notre Dame. One year after earning second team honors at the league level, senior Marleigh Jackson this time cracked the first team as PC’s sole all-league honoree. Molly Dougherty, Aubrei Smith and Laila Sharp also enjoyed strong offensive seasons for the Quakers.

BOYS SQUASH

Penn Charter finished with a 9-10 overall record, including a third-place standing in the Inter-Ac League. The Quakers enjoyed a particularly strong showing in their final event of the season at the 2026 U.S. High School Team Championships, a three-day event in Philadelphia at the end of February, also known as Nationals. As the No. 3 seed in the Boys’ IV bracket, PC reeled off three consecutive victories over Trinity-Pawling School (NY), Walt Whitman High School (MD) and Brookline High School (MA) before falling short against top-seeded Crystal Springs Upland School (CA) in the final. James Killinger and Ramzi Wilkins were both named to the all-league second team for a job well done this season. 

GIRLS SQUASH

The PC girls’ squash squad finished with a winning record of 8-7 overall, which also included a fourth place finish in the Inter-Ac. The Quakers also enjoyed a strong showing at Nationals, finishing 2-2 for the weekend as the No. 8 seed in the Girls’ II bracket. They earned hard-fought 4-3 victories over both Middlesex School (MA) and Taft School (CT) while coming up just short against local rival Conestoga and top-seeded Sacred Heart Greenwich (CT). Junior Paige Taub was the program’s lone all-league selection, as she was named to the second team.

GIRLS SWIMMING

While countless PC student-athletes enjoyed immense success in their sport of choice last winter, sophomore Eila Spaman was the only Quaker to win a league MVP this past winter, or in her case, the Most Valuable Swimmer award. Spaman broke school records in both the 50- and 100-meter freestyle events at the Inter-Ac Invitational on January 31, then broke her own record again in the 50 free two weeks later at the Eastern Prep Championships at Franklin & Marshall College (the Quakers placed third as a team at both events). Also at Easterns, the 200- and 400-meter relay teams of Spaman, Cate DeMartinis, Lili DeMartinis and Nola Waldbuesser set meet records in both events. All four of those swimmers were named to the Inter-Ac’s all-league team, with Spaman’s MVP leading the way, following a 3-3 overall finish in dual meets that landed them in fourth place in the Inter-Ac.

BOYS SWIMMING

The Quakers picked up their lone victory of the season on January 28, a 104-79 decision against the Hill School. The program finished fifth at the Inter-Ac Invitational with 138 team points before swimming to a 17th-place finish at the Eastern Prep Championships for the second consecutive season. Sophomore Owen Trostle was Penn Charter’s lone male swimmer to be selected to the all-league team. 

— Ed Morrone

See photos by Zamani Feelings.