Freshman and Sophomore City Championship Preview

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 their programs. Not surprisingly, when we looked back, we noticed an obvious pattern of which schools tend to get this talent year in and year out.

The Sophomore championship tends to lend itself to the same conclusion, except in some cases, you can see how some programs are coaching up their freshmen into faster sophomores.

In some cases, certain schools have more Sophomore trophies than Freshmen trophies. In other cases, it’s vice versa.

BOYS

FROSH BOYS	1ST	2ND	3RD		SOPH BOYS	1ST	2ND	3RD
					2014	Curtis	Brooklyn Tech	Bronx Science
2014	Bronx Science	Tottenville	HSMSE	➡️	2015	MSIT	Tottenville	HSMSE
2015	Brooklyn Tech	MSIT	Francis Lewis	➡️	2016	Brooklyn Tech	RKA	MSIT
2016	Brooklyn Tech	Bronx Science	Millennium	➡️	2017	Bronx Science	Susan Wagner	Brooklyn Tech
2017	Bronx Science	HSMSE	Curtis	➡️	2018	Curtis	MSIT	Francis Lewis
2018	Bronx Science	Beacon	Brooklyn Tech	➡️	2019	Bronx Science	Brooklyn Tech	Beacon
2019	Brooklyn Tech	Millennium	RKA	➡️	2020
2020				➡️	2021	Brooklyn Tech	Hunter	HSMSE
2021	Brooklyn Tech	Bronx Science	Hunter	➡️	2022	Stuyvesant	Bronx Science	MSIT
2022	Brooklyn Tech	HSMSE	MSIT	➡️	2023	Brooklyn Tech	MSIT	LaGuardia
2023	Brooklyn Tech	HSMSE	Bronx Science	➡️	2024

Boys	Frosh Top 3	Soph Top 3
Brooklyn Tech	7	6
Bronx Science	6	4
HSMSE	4	2
MSIT	2	5
Millennium	2	0
Tottenville	1	1
Beacon	1	1
Hunter	1	1
RKA	1	1
Curtis	1	2
Francis Lewis	1	1
Stuyvesant	0	1
LaGuardia	0	1
Susan Wagner	0	1

The success of Brooklyn Tech (3300+ boys enrolled) and Bronx Science (1500+ boys) really isn’t a surprise. The success of HSMSE with only 350+ boys enrolled is a credit to the program that has been built by Coach Henning.

On the sophomore side, Coach Crabbe is really coaching them up from freshman year to sophomore year, with MSIT having 5 podium finishes in the Sophomore race since 2014, while only having 2 podium finishes at the Freshmen level.

GIRLS

FROSH GIRLS	1ST	2ND	3RD		SOPH GIRLS	1ST	2ND	3RD
					2014	MSIT	Brooklyn Tech	Stuyvesant
2014	Bronx Science	Brooklyn Tech	MSIT	➡️	2015	Stuyvesant	Bronx Science	MSIT
2015	Bronx Science	YWLS	Brooklyn Tech	➡️	2016	Stuyvesant	Brooklyn Tech	Townsend Harris
2016	Brooklyn Tech	Medgar Evers	Townsend Harris	➡️	2017	Susan Wagner	Brooklyn Tech	Bronx Science
2017	Hunter	Millennium	Townsend Harris	➡️	2018	Millennium	Francis Lewis	Tottenville
2018	Bronx Science	Paul Robeson	HSMSE	➡️	2019	Brooklyn Tech	Benjamin Cardozo	Millennium
2019	Stuyvesant	Brooklyn Tech	Curtis	➡️	2020
2020				➡️	2021	Beacon	Stuyvesant	Tottenville
2021	Brooklyn Tech	Hunter	Benjamin Cardozo	➡️	2022	Stuyvesant	Brooklyn Tech	HSMSE
2022	James Madison	Bronx Science	Stuyvesant	➡️	2023	Bronx Science	LaGuardia	Stuyvesant
2023	LaGuardia	Stuyvesant	Townsend Harris	➡️	2024

Girls	Frosh Top 3	Soph Top 3
Brooklyn Tech	5	5
Bronx Science	4	3
Stuyvesant	3	6
Townsend Harris	3	1
Hunter	2	0
James Madison	1	0
LaGuardia	1	1
Young Women's	1	0
Medgar Evers	1	0
Millennium	1	2
Paul Robeson	1	0
MSIT	1	2
HSMSE	1	1
Curtis	1	0
Benjamin Cardozo	1	1
Francis Lewis	0	1
Tottenville	0	2
Beacon	0	1
Susan Wagner	0	1

Again, with by far the most girls enrolled (2500+) in the city the success of Brooklyn Tech is no surprise. Stuyvesant having twice as many Sophomore podium finishes as Freshmen finishes is impressive, even if they are top 10 in female enrollment at just over 1,500 girls.

Frosh Girls Preview

We’ve seen a number of Fast Freshmen™ this year. Probably the most impressive is Aisha Wajid of Dewitt Clinton. She’s probably the favorite, having already smashed the 10 minute barrier. Susan Wagner is probably the team favorite, since freshmen make up half of their top 8 varsity runners. Brooklyn Tech, LaGuardia, Townsend Harris and Stuyvesant should compete for the final two trophies.

Ten Frosh Girls to Watch:

Aisha Wajid (Dewitt Clinton)

Evelyn Craig (Brooklyn Tech)

Matilda Quinn (John Jay Campus)

Adelaide McDonough (Bronx Science)

Malina Rodriguez-King (Susan Wagner)

Milani Jackson (Susan Wagner)

Naomi Vender-Wilson (Townsend Harris)

Elka Cafcules (Beacon)

Ilse Avery (Susan Wagner)

Amanda Lee (Stuyvesant)

Sophomore Girls Preview

Last year, the LaGuardia girls won the freshman title, followed by Stuyvesant and Townsend Harris. The LaGuardia girls are probably still the favorites, but Bronx Science will push them.

Ten Sophomore Girls to Watch:

Melia Murphy (Clinton School)

Riley Tefft (Curtis)

Noa Yirmiyahu (Hunter)

Genevieve Backus (LaGuardia)

Virginia Begley (LaGuardia)

Natalia Pisczcatowski (Townsend Harris)

Phoebe Estep (HS for Math, Science and Engineering)

Hazel Lyons-Baum (Bronx Science)

Francesca Haidt (Brooklyn Tech)

Eleanor Lewis-Jenkins (Bard)

Frosh Boys Preview

Like most years, Brooklyn Tech will battle Bronx Science and HSMSE for the title. Brooklyn Tech hasn’t lost this race since 2018.

Ten Frosh Boys to Watch:

Collin Toung (Manhattan Center)

Oren Vecerka (HS for Math, Science and Engineering)

Lucien Jaccon (Hunter)

Denzel Reyes (HS for Construction)

Marco Arrojo (Lab Museum)

Henry Bissell (John Jay Campus)

Sam Frader-Thompson (Brooklyn Tech)

Florian Joliveau (Brooklyn Tech)

Yunus Gubrud (Stuyvesant)

Alexander Draves (Stuyvesant)

Sophomore Boys Preview:

Last year, Brooklyn Tech beat HSMSE on a tiebreaker, but HSMSE no longer has 2 of its top 3 freshman from last year. However, last year’s third place finishers Bronx Science have shown great improvement, added one of HSMSE’s top frosh from last year and should be considered the favorite. HSMSE, Stuyvesant, and MSIT will probably challenge for the bronze.

Ten Sophomore Boys to Watch:

Jasper Graham (Hunter)

Abraham Wilchins (Brooklyn Tech)

Eliot Faith (Bronx Science)

Wilson Margolis (John Jay Campus)

Max Berkson (HSMSE)

Gavin Ashe (John Jay Campus)

Elijah Hernandez (Bronx Science)

Adam Zarrilli (MSIT)

Lex Yeung (Bronx Science)

Leo Kindred (Bronx Science)