The underclassmen will take center stage at Van Cortlandt this weekend at the PSAL Freshman and Sophomore City Championships. Earlier this month these championships were held for each borough, but now everyone will come together to crown a city champion for each grade. The Freshman championship is always interesting because 95% of these freshmen have only been running for 2 months. It’s really just a good indicator of which schools have gotten the most talent infused into t

Manhattan Varsity Boys HSMSE takes home its first ever Cross Country Borough Championship and did so with ease. Wren Hansen grabbed the win, running 16:38, one of the fastest times of the day. Projected Top 4 Teams: 1. HSMSE ✅ 2. Stuyvesant ✅ 3. Hunter ✅ 4. Bard ❌ Actual Top 4 Teams: 1. HSMSE 2. Stuyvesant 3. Hunter 4. Lab Museum Ten Runners to watch: Wren Hansen (HSMSE) 1

Manhattan Varsity Boys – 9:00 AM This has typically been the most competitive and difficult to predict of all the borough championships. This year, however, #4 HSMSE seems to be head and shoulders above the rest of the Borough. The battle for second between #6 Hunter College Campus and #8 Stuyvesant could be very close. The individual race is up for grabs as well, and there are any number of boys who are capable of winning it. Jasper Graham (Hunter), Marco Arrojo (#9 Lab Muse

The final weekend before PSAL championship season begins is now behind us. SIHST&FA Varsity/JV Island Championships - Clove Lakes State Park MSIT defeated Monsignor Farrell 30-45 to win the Island Championship. Adam Zarrilli and Scott Kelly went 2nd and 3rd in 15:58 and 16:15, respectively. MSIT had a 1-5 split of 1 minute. Susan Wagner finished 3rd, without Andrea Gallina. Curtis was 5th with Marcos Penaranda recording a top ten finish. Finishing 7-8-9 were Tottenville,

This past week, the spotlight shone on the underclassmen, as each borough held its Borough Freshman and Sophomore Championships. Queens - Cunningham Park On the boys side, the Freshman Championship was won by HS for Construction, who was the only program to field a full team of five. Chase Clark of Metropolitan Campus won the race in 9:38. In the Sophomore race, Metropolitan Campus went 1, 2, 3, 8, but did not have a fifth finisher. Simon Bird won the race in 12:39. Francis

It was an exciting weekend of racing headline by the Manhattan Invitational at Van Cortlandt Park. All of the boys teams ranked in the top ten raced and all of the girls teams in the top 16 had either all or some of their girls race. Fordham Prep Developmental #2 - Van Cortlandt Park On Friday evening a few PSAL teams competed here. The top PSAL finisher was Dennis Jeffrey II of Townsend Harris. He finished 3rd, covering the 4K course in 15:40 and leading his team to vict

We’ll start this preview by acknowledging that we missed some results for John Jay Campus this past weekend and it skewed their ranking. It’s not a common occurrence that a team splits its varsity team to run at two different meets, so forgive us our trespasses. This weekend the region’s best teams will descend on Van Cortlandt Park for one of the largest Invitationals in the country: 37 races run over just over six hours. Here’s a preview to help you find your favorite PSAL

Unlike most weekends, all of the PSAL teams remained in the city for a meet at Van Cortlandt. And although many teams competed, it was also an SAT day, so many key runners were missing. It leaves us with more questions than answers. Girls PSAL Marty Lewis Borough Challenge – Van Cortlandt Park The day began with the Freshman race, won easily by Susan Wagner. They had the two fastest freshmen in the race, Genevieve Pantaleo (OB Waverunners), who ran 10:12 and Antonia Schnell

The weather robbed us of a fantastic weekend of racing all around the area. PSAL Group Run at Van Cortlandt Park - CANCELED Suffolk Coaches Invitational at Sunken Meadow State Park, Kings Park, NY - CANCELED Six Flags Wild Safari Invitational at Six Flags, Jackson, NJ - CANCELED Xavier Invitational at Ocean Breeze Athletic Complex, Staten Island, NY - CANCELED Bowdoin XC Classic at Bowdoin Park, Wappingers Falls, NY - The only meet contested. Bowdoin XC Classic – Bowdoin

Girls Suffern Invitational The Bronx Science girls traveled to New Jersey and turned in an impressive performance, finishing 1st of 3 teams in the Varsity A race. They were 3rd of 11 teams in the merge. You read that correctly, 11 teams were spread out over 3 varsity races. Sally Kramer finished 4th and Hazel Lyons-Baum was 6th to lead the way. New-to-XC Clara Grosso makes an immediate impact, finishing as their 3rd girl in 9th place. Their JV squad finished 3rd of 4 comple

After a few slow weekends, the invitational season really gets underway this weekend. Suffern Invitational - Mahwah, NJ Bronx Science Regis Invitational - Van Cortlandt Park Bayside, Brooklyn Tech, Curtis, HS for Construction, Hunter College Campus, MSIT, Midwood, Stuyvesant, Townsend Harris Bob Pratt Invitational - Sunken Meadow State Park, Kings Park, NY Riverdale/Kingsbridge Academy, The Clinton School, West End Secondary, Francis Lewis A few weeks ago, we identifi

Girls CHSAA Practice Meet @ Van Cortlandt Park Stuyvesant placed 2nd overall in the 4K Varsity race. They were paced by sophomores Eliam Brody (6th) and Isla Broadbent (7th). Townsend Harris finished 7th, led by an impressive 2nd place finish by Natalia Piszczatowski, who covered the 4K course in 17:08. Francis Lewis placed 8th of the 12 teams. Sophomore Devora Tonkonog led them with a 32nd place finish in 20:43. Mount Academy Invitational @ Mount Academy, Esopus, NY The LaG

2025 in Review In 2025, the LaGuardia girls took home their first ever PSAL Championship, and it wasn’t close. They were 15th at the Federation meet. Susan Wagner tied their best-ever finish, claiming the runner-up spot and their sophomores won the City Championship. The Stuyvesant girls were third and Brooklyn Tech was fourth. Naomi Douglas of LaGuardia and Melia Murphy of The Clinton School earned All-State honors at the Federation meet. There’s been an interesting trend so

2025 in Review Despite not having their top runner available because he did not run a single PSAL meet, Bronx Science won the City Championship in convincing fashion. They were also 4th in the Federation meet, their sophomores won again and their freshmen were 2nd. Brooklyn Tech finished 2nd again and perhaps concerning for them was that their freshmen didn’t finish in the top three for the first time since 2017. MSIT finished 3rd and also had the City Champion freshmen team.

This will be the last post before we start our Fall previews. After reviewing each borough, there’s no need to review the entire City in a post, but we can quickly compare all of the teams that have qualified for every City Championship this decade. On the boys side, there are ten programs that have qualified for the championship every year. Below is the total of their scores from each year. 1. Brooklyn Tech 307 2. Bronx Science 541

No girls program from the Bronx has ever won the City Championship. Bronx Science came closest in 2022, finishing 2nd by two points. Four different programs have qualified for the City Championship this decade. Bronx Science’s two closest challengers barely have 300 girls in their school. Borough Champions 2021 - Bronx Science 2022 - Bronx Science 2023 - Bronx Science 2024 - Bronx Science 2025 - Bronx Science Individual Champions 2021 - Sheyla Zakashansky - HS of American Stu

We’ve already written about this, so we’ll try to keep it brief. Before the Pandemic, only one Manhattan girls program had ever won a City Championship: HS for Health Professions in 2009. Since the Pandemic, three different Manhattan girls programs have won a City Championship. Each year this decade, the individual city champion has been from a Manhattan school. More than half of the top ten finishers at the City Championship have been from Manhattan. Only six girls in PSAL

From 1980 to 2013, schools from Staten Island won 26 of the 34 City Championships. Four of the eight Staten Island schools won championships, with Tottenville leading the way with 18. Curtis and MSIT have also won multiple titles and even Port Richmond won one. However, no Staten Island school has won a title since 2013. This decade only one school, Susan Wagner in 2025, has finished in the top four at Cities to qualify for the Federation Meet. Five of the eight schools have

The girls scene in Brooklyn is very similar to the boys scene: Brooklyn Tech is dominant. The Tech girls have won two City Championships this decade, and five since 2015. Three other Brooklyn schools also have top-ten finishes this decade. The last Brooklyn school besides Tech to win a city championship was Boys and Girls in 2004. There are 25 programs in Brooklyn, but 11 of them have not competed in a Borough Championship yet this decade. Borough Champions 2021 - Brooklyn Te

The Queens girls have certainly been more competitive than their male counterparts this century, winning 4 City Championships thus far. From 2014 to 2018, Benjamin Cardozo won three titles, but the days of club kids using phony Queens addresses to attend Cardozo seem to be over. This decade, the Townsend Harris girls have been the dominant program in Queens, even qualifying for the Federation meet in 2022. The only other Queens girls program to finish in the Top 10 at City Ch