Manhattan Girls
- 19 hours ago
- 8 min read
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 history have broken 19 minutes for the 5k course at Van Cortlandt; half of that list are Manhattan girls from this decade. Eleven different girls programs have qualified for the City Championship this decade, by far the most of any borough.
Borough Champions
2021 - Stuyvesant
2022 - Stuyvesant
2023 - Hunter College Campus
2024 - LaGuardia
2025 - LaGuardia
Individual Champions
2021 - Isabella Stenhouse - Stuyvesant - 19:17
2022 - Ella Cohen - Hunter College Campus - 19:49
2023 - Ella Cohen - Hunter College Campus - 19:11
2024 - Naomi Douglas - LaGuardia - 18:39
2025 - Naomi Douglas - LaGuardia - 18:33
Top Ten Finishes at City Championship
1. Isabella Stenhouse - Stuyvesant (2021)
1. Isabella Stenhouse - Stuyvesant (2022)
1. Ella Cohen - Hunter College Campus (2023)
1. Naomi Douglas - LaGuardia (2024)
1. Naomi Douglas - LaGuardia (2025)
2. Naomi Douglas - LaGuardia (2023)
2. Gwyneth Shupp - LaGuardia (2024)
2. Melia Murphy - The Clinton School (2025)
3. Linden Cafcules - Beacon (2021)
3. Rebecca Sonn-Lees - Hunter College Campus (2022)
3. Genevieve Backus - LaGuardia (2025)
4. Rebecca Sonn-Lees - Hunter College Campus (2021)
4. Pimada Phongsuriya - Stuyvesant (2022)
4. Melia Murphy - The Clinton School (2023)
4. Noa Yirmiyahu - Hunter College Campus (2024)
5. Rebecca Sonn-Lees - Hunter College Campus (2023)
6. Ella Cohen - Hunter College Campus (2022)
6. Emma Savonije - Stuyvesant (2024)
6. Gwyneth Shupp - LaGuardia (2025)
7. Thea Sjursen - Beacon (2021)
7. Emma Savonije - Stuyvesant (2023)
8. Naomi Douglas - LaGuardia (2022)
8. Noa Yirmiyahu - Hunter College Campus (2023)
8. Emma Savonije - Stuyvesant (2025)
9. Linden Cafcules - Beacon (2023)
10. Dylan McElhinney - Hunter College Campus (2021)
10. Jasper Newton - Hunter College Campus (2023)
10. Eva Marmolejos - Columbia Secondary (2025)
The PSAL website lists 22 girls programs on the its website. We’ll rank their performance since the Pandemic in reverse order.
20. (Tied)
High School of Economics and Finance
Gregorio Luperon - their first season was 2025
Martin L. King Jr. High School
These schools have not competed in a Borough Championship this decade.
19. Community Health Academy
CHA has appeared in one Manhattan Borough Championship, in which they finished last in 2021. Nicole Garcia ran 29:34 in 2022.
18. Murry Bergtraum High School
Bergtraum has competed at one Manhattan Borough Championship this decade. They finished 12th of 14 teams in 2023. With nearly 700 girls in the school, it seems like they should be able to field a more consistent team. Their top runner of the decade is Jasmine Mares-Alvarado, who ran 25:18 in 2023.
17. High School for Environmental Studies
Environmental Studies has competed in two Manhattan Borough Championships this decade and have a top finish of 11th in 2024. Their top runner of the decade is Ava Gonzalez, who ran 24:22 as a freshman in 2024, but didn’t return for her sophomore year.
16. High School of Fashion Industries
The girls from Fashion have competed in three Manhattan Borough Championships this decade, with a top finish of 11th in 2022. There are more than 1,200 girls in the school, but the 2025 roster only listed 15 girls. Rebecca Lin ran 21:37 in 2025 to set their decade standard.
15. Pace High School
Pace has only participated in the last two Manhattan Borough Championships, with their top finish being 9th in 2024. They’ve had some decent talent, with the best being Maya Zolotariov who ran 22:38 as a junior in 2024. Pace has a small population of around 250 girls it isn’t all that surprising that they’ve been unable to find enough talent to field a competitive top five runners. For example, at Boroughs in 2024, there was a more than 14 minute gap between their 4th and 5th runners.
14. High School for Health Professions
The only program to win a City Championship before the Pandemic has fallen on to hard times. They’ve only competed in three of the five Manhattan Borough Championships. They’ve finished 9th in 2021 and last in 2023 and 2024. It’s a school with 1,200 girls, and the size of their roster has grown over the past few seasons, but they’ve still had difficulty finding talent. Their top runner this decade is Sandra Ramales, who ran 23:03 as a sophomore in 2021, but then never ran XC again.
13. Lab Museum United
LMU has competed in every Manhattan Borough Championship this decade, but hasn’t finished better than 10th, which they did in 2021 and 2022. Their top time of the decade was run last season by freshman Fiona Kahn, who ran 23:08. That’s some good young talent to build around.
12. Chelsea Career and Technical High School
Chelsea has only competed in two of the five Manhattan Borough Championships, but they’ve finished 9th both times, in 2022 and 2023. One of the smallest schools in Manhattan, they’ve been able to secure some talent this decade, just not enough to score well. For example, in 2023 they had two girls finish in the top 20 at Boroughs, but had a split of more than 35 minutes between their 1st and 5th girl. In 2024, Raquel Pasco ran 21:38 at Bowdoin in the Federation Meet.
11. Manhattan Center for Science and Math
The Manhattan Center girls haven’t had quiet the success that their boys have. They’ve competed every year at the Manhattan Borough Championship, finishing between 8th and 12th each time. Kate Mejia owns their decade record, with her 21:18 in 2022. Aside from that, the next three fastest times of the decade were run by girls who should return this Fall.
10. West End Secondary School
A new PSAL program in 2025, the WESS girls qualified for the City Championship on their first attempt. They finished 18th of the 22 teams. Charlotte Widensky ran 22:27 in 2025 and will be back this Fall. For a program with fewer than 400 girls to choose from, they had 26 girls on their roster last Fall.
9. Columbia Secondary School
These girls surprised the PSAL last season, qualifying for probably the first time in school history. Despite only having 11 girls on their roster, they finished 13th in the entire City. Eva Marmolejos switched from soccer to cross country and finished 10th at City Championship. She also finished in the top 100 at the Federation meet, running 20:29. Surprisingly, their top finish at Boroughs wasn’t last Fall, but 2022 when they finished 5th.
8. Eleanor Roosevelt High School
ELRO peaked at the beginning of the decade, finishing 12th at the City Championship and 4th in Manhattan in 2021. Their 2022 team was even better, but failed to qualify for the City Championship race. Instead, they ran the individual race. Plugging those times into the Championship race would have landed them inside the top ten, as high as 8th place.
7. Bard High School
The girls from East Houston have qualified for the City Championships three times this decade, with a top finish of 15th in 2023. Their top time was run by PPYRC’s Eleanor Lewis-Jenkins, who ran 21:08 as a freshman in 2023. With nearly 1,200 girls eligible for their team, it won’t surprise anyone to see this run of success continue and improve.
6. The Clinton School
The Clinton School has qualified for the City Championship three times this decade, with a top finish of 12th in 2023. Quite impressive for a school with around 300 girls. They were 14th last year, led by Melia Murphy who ran 18:44 at VCP, the 3rd fastest in PSAL history. Their best Borough finish is 6th, in both 2022 and 2023.
5. High School for Math, Science and Engineering
HSMSE has one of the smallest female populations of any school in Manhattan, and yet manages to field a competitive team each year. They’ve qualified for the City Championship every year this decade, with two top ten finishes, including a 7th in 2022. Twice they’ve finished 3rd in the Manhattan Borough Championship (2021 and 2022). Phoebe Estep is their top runner this decade, running 21:37 in 2024. That year, she missed the City Championship and it probably kept HSMSE from their best ever City Championship finish. In 2025, she qualified for the Federation meet.
4. Beacon High School
The Beacon girls started the decade on a high note, qualifying for the Federation meet after finishing 4th in the City in 2021. That year, they were led by two PPYRC girls, Linden Cafcules, who ran 20:10 that year, and Thea Sjursen. Neither girl ever ran faster than 2021 and Sjursen only ran one more XC race after her sophomore year. In 2022, they didn’t score at Boroughs and therefore could not qualify for the City Championship. However, every other year this decade, they’ve finished in the top ten at City Championship. In 2025, they won the Freshmen City Championship, so that should set them up well for the second half of the decade.
3. Hunter College Campus High School
No program came back from the Pandemic with more talent than the Hawks. In 2023, they won the Triple Crown, winning the City Championship in Cross Country, Indoor, and Outdoor. Their 2023 XC team set the PSAL scoring record at the City Championship and finished 6th at the Federation meet, the highest ever finish by a PSAL girls team. And that was without Dylan McElhinney, who ran unattached after her sophomore year, appearing in a Hunter uniform on the track at championship events only. Hunter also has the benefit of training their kids from 7th grade, so they often arrive to 9th grade more polished than other freshmen. This helps to explain why they’ve already had three Fast Freshman™ so far this decade. Ella Cohen was one of those freshmen, and her 18:54 in 2023 is the 4th fastest time in PSAL history at Van Cortlandt. Hunter has finished in the top ten at the City Championship each year this decade and that’s thanks in large part to a coaching staff that is able to bring out the talent in their girls. Some of them may start fast, but they’ve been coached to run even faster.
2. LaGuardia High School
No program this decade has benefitted more from the “show up and be fast” strategy than the Lady Lions. But they’ve also combined that with the ability to develop the girls who aren’t fast on day one. This is why they were able to win the first City Championship in program history in 2025 and have steadily risen up the City Championship ranks since the beginning of the decade (9th-8th-3rd-2nd-1st). Their 2025 championship team was the 4th fastest in PSAL history, an average certainly helped by Naomi Douglas running the fastest time in PSAL history. If you break down their championship team, Douglas (Chelsea Greyhounds), Genevieve Backus (PPYRC) and June Grunden showed up and were fast (all ran 22:00 or faster for their first ever 5k) on day one. But others like Gwyneth Shupp (26:31->22:26->19:38), Sigrid Lussier (23:51->21:11) and Virginia Begley (25:28->22:02->19:58) grew faster each Fall. All of that growth from Fall to Fall occurs mainly because of work put in during the other seasons. Coach Philip Hackett (LaGuardia Indoor and Outdoor coach) probably deserves a lot of the credit here, too.
1. Stuyvesant High School
Stuyvesant and LaGuardia have similar resumes to start the decade (1 City Championship, 2 Borough Championships) but overall, Stuyvesant’s is still slightly more impressive. To start, the Stuyvesant girls have not finished lower than 3rd at the City Championship this decade, including winning it all in 2022. They are also the only PSAL girls program to qualify for the Federation meet each year since the Pandemic. Their top runner, Isabella Stenhouse ran 19:17 in 2021, which ranks her just outside the top ten on the all-time PSAL list. Unlike LaGuardia and Hunter, however, Stuyvesant only got its first Fast Freshman™ last Fall, but they have still been lucky enough to have talent to develop. Looking at their team from last Fall, first 5k ever to PR: Emma Savonije (22:47 -> 20:26), Jiya Patel (24:40 -> 21:18), Eliam Brody (23:11 -> 21:35), Amanda Lee (24:33 -> 21:12), Kanchanok Zhang (31:44 -> 21:58), Vivian Hoelsher (27:18 -> 22:49), Vivian Champion (32:37 -> 23:27)
The Manhattan GIrls All Half-Decade Team
Noa Yirmiyahu (Hunter College Campus)
Genevieve Backus (LaGuardia)
Emma Savonije (Stuyvesant)
Linden Cafcules (Beacon)
Rebecca Sonn-Lees (Hunter College Campus)
Gwyneth Shupp (LaGuardia)
Isabella Stenhouse (Stuyvesant)
Ella Cohen (Hunter College Campus)
Melia Murphy (The Clinton School)
Naomi Douglas (LaGuardia)