Manhattan Invitational Preview
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 teams.
9:03 AM – Freshman Boys “A”
Bard, West End Secondary, HSMSE, Lab Museum
9:10 AM – Freshman Girls “A”
Brooklyn Tech, Stuyvesant, Bard, John Jay Campus, RKA
9:16 AM –Freshman Boys “B”
HS for Construction, John Jay Campus, Stuyvesant
9:23 AM – Freshman Girls “B”
Columbia Secondary, Lab Museum
9:29 AM –Freshman Boys “C”
Brooklyn Tech
9:36 AM – Freshman Girls “C”
LaGuardia, West End Secondary, HSMSE
9:42 AM –Freshman Boys “D”
MSIT, Curtis, Bronx Science
10:30 AM –Sophomore Boys “A”
Brooklyn Tech, HSMSE, John Jay Campus, MSIT, Bard
10:43 AM – Sophomore Girls “A”
Bard, Stuyvesant, West End Secondary, Tottenville
10:56 AM –Sophomore Boys “B”
Bronx Science, Curtis, Stuyvesant, West End Secondary
As we try to preview the Varsity races, it’s difficult to know which runners are entered. Teams with freshmen or sophomores on their varsity teams (that’s nearly all of the girls squads), may choose to run their underclassmen in the Freshman or Sophomore races.
11:07 AM –Varsity Girls “A”
Last year the LaGuardia girls ran screaming-fast times here, but we haven’t seen them race enough to know if they can repeat that performance. Top runner Leah Belyavsky should finish in the top five here, which will help the Lions keep their score low. Stuyvesant has raced all of their top runners at some point this season, but so far they haven’t all run together. A number of them are sophomores and they do have a team entered in the Sophomore race. Manhattan Center has been a pleasant surprise this season and have a few freshmen in their top seven. They are not entered in a freshman race, so we’ll probably see a full team effort here.
11:19 AM –Varsity Boys “A”
Varsity A features a matchup of three Manhattan squads who will fighting just to qualify for Cities. Manhattan Center freshman Borut Junior Vojnic has been running well and they aren’t entered in a Freshman Race, so expect to see him here. They’ve got two solid runners, but struggle with depth. They boys from WESS and Columbia Secondary haven’t shown a whole lot yet this season, so it’s tough to know what we’ll see here.
11:31 AM – Varsity Girls “B”
Plenty to discuss here with five PSAL teams in the race. The Wajid sisters obviously lead DeWitt Clinton, but we haven’t seen much else. Middle sister Sakinah will likely run here since they aren’t entered in a Freshman race. Hunter College Campus is another team whose girls have all raced, just not altogether yet this season. They’re also not entered in a Freshman or Sophomore race so it’s likely all of the Hunter girls who are available to run will race here. The Midwood girls raced pretty well last week and could be rounding into form. This matchup with John Jay Campus will give us a good idea of how things stand in Brooklyn (after Tech, of course). John Jay Campus ran the Novice race last week and didn’t run all of their girls. If they’re healthy, they’ll probably show up here. Bronx Science raced altogether about a month ago, with only one of their top runners racing last week. They’re mostly juniors and seniors, so there’s nowhere to race but here. The Hunter-Science matchup here will give us a good feeling for who has the inside track for the final Federation qualifying spot.
11:43 AM –Varsity Boys “B”
You’d expect the boys from John Jay Campus to really pour it on here after being accidentally disrespected by us last week. Lab Museum has small, but talented group of boys, led by Marco Arrojo, who ran low-17 minutes for the 5k on this course last weekend. This will be a good matchup, but we expect John Jay Campus to come out on top. Bard lost a lot to graduation and will be dependent on a number of underclassmen, however, they are entered in both a boys Freshman race and a boys Sophomore race on Saturday, so we may not see their top team.
11:55 AM – Varsity Girls “C”
For us, this is the girls race of the day. Two of LaGuardia’s closest challengers will duke it out, if they field their full complement of runners. Brooklyn Tech’s varsity squad could have two freshmen on it, but they also entered a team in a girls Freshman race, so we’ll see where they race. We’ve yet to see Francesca Haidt or Evelyn Craig this season, but we’d expect to see them here if they’re ready to race. Susan Wagner isn’t entered in any of the underclass races, so we expect to see them here with all of their top runners. HSMSE is a team that could surprise here, as they already have three girls who have broken 22 minutes for the 5k at VCP. Bard is a team we’d love to see race it’s full squad. However, they are entered in a Freshman race and one of their top girls is a freshman. Lab Museum has a talented freshman in Kenley Miller, but they’re also entered in a Freshman race, so we aren’t sure where we will see her run. WESS is having a down year by their standards, and it would be a good effort to have 2-3 girls break 20 minutes for the 4K.
12:07 PM – Varsity Boys “C”
Beating the boys from Ocean City, NJ, looks like a tough ask, but the boys from MSIT will be battling for the podium here, as they’re potentially the 2nd best team in this race. The boys from Stuyvesant are mostly seniors and juniors, so the fact that they are entered in both underclass races, shouldn’t play much of a factor here. Curtis has a solid two in the front, but will need 3-5 to break 16 minutes here to build momentum toward Championship Season.
12:19 PM – Varsity Girls “D”
Zero PSAL Schools
12:31 PM – Boys Eastern State Championship
This is probably the PSAL boys race of the day, if only because we’ll get to actually see Bronx Science race. Bronx Science doesn’t have the same squad as last year, but make no mistake, they belong in this race. It’s possible that a number of Wolverines break 13 minutes here. The HSMSE boys might be a little out of their depth here, but this is a talented, pack-running squad. The lack of a front runner will hurt them in this race and in the merge, but that sting won’t be felt in the PSAL merge.
12:43 PM – Girls Eastern State Championship
We know why The Clinton School is entered here. Senior Melia Murphy ran a PSAL-record 14:51 to finish 11th in the race last year. The rest of her teammates will finish toward the back, but it’ll be a good test for them come November. Columbia Secondary is also entered here and while that is a little puzzling, we are hoping that means that their full squad is ready to race.
12:55 PM – Varsity Boys “D”
This is a good spot to see how fast sophomore Tristan Acevedo can run. There are several boys who have faster ratings than him in this race, but it wouldn’t surprise us at all if he pulled out a win here. For other PSAL teams watching these results, it will be interesting to see how the 3-5 runners of Susan Wagner can run. As for HS for Construction, this seems more like a rebuilding campaign, so they’re really working to build a top five that can qualify for Cities.
1:07 PM – Varsity Boys “E”
It’s been a while since Brooklyn Tech wasn’t one of the favorites in their Letter race at Manhattan, but that’s true this weekend. We think their top seven is mostly junior and seniors, so it might not matter that they are entered in both underclass races. The boys from RKA are also entered here and it could help them shore up their back end spots.
1:19 PM – Varsity Girls “E”
HS for Construction
The unranked girls from HS for Construction race here, but we haven’t seen much of them this year, so we’re not sure if they’ll even field a scoring team.
1:31 PM – Varsity Boys “F”
This could be a good spot for Wyatt Weller of LaGuardia to run a solid time, but we don’t expect much else from this squad, who will need to improve if they want to qualify for Cities. Hunter College Campus has a solid front three, led by Jasper Graham who could finish in the top ten here.
1:42 PM – JV Boys “A”
An ode to when the Varsity races were run last… there are zero PSAL schools in the first JV race.
1:54 PM – JV Girls “A”
Bronx Science, LaGuardia
2:06 PM – JV Boys “B”
An ode to when the Varsity races were run last… there are zero PSAL schools in the second JV race.
2:18 PM – JV Girls “B”
Zero PSAL Schools
2:30 PM – JV Boys “C”
An ode to when the Varsity races were run last… there are zero PSAL schools in the third JV race.
2:42 PM – JV Girls “C”
Brooklyn Tech
2:54 PM – JV Boys “D”
MSIT, HSMSE, Bronx Science
3:06 PM – JV Girls “D”
West End Secondary, Stuyvesant
3:18 PM – JV Boys “E”
Stuyvesant, Brooklyn Tech
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