PSAL Championship Preview

This Saturday is for all the marbles. The best 21 girls teams and 16 boys teams will toe the line for the chance to bring home the banner and be crowned City Champions.

The Bronx Science boys will seek to defend their title and enter the race as a solid favorite. The LaGuardia girls have dominated all year long and look to secure their first ever PSAL title.

Boys Championship Race – 10 AM

Predicted Finish:

1. Bronx Science – Getting to compete for a championship on a course you train on every day is certainly an advantage. Senior Ben Berman will toe the line for just the third time this season, but will take aim at the PSAL record at Van Cortlandt Park which is 15:41. He is certainly capable of running this time. Their next three runners (Liam Hernandez, Christopher Thom and Eliot Faith) have already run faster than 17:15. At boroughs, their 5^th runner and Brooklyn Tech’s 5^th runner both ran 17:30. This looks like it could be closer than last year, but the Wolverines will likely hold off Tech.

2. Brooklyn Tech – At boroughs, Brooklyn Tech finally put a total race together and certainly closed the gap on Bronx Science. Their top two runners were 3^rd and 5^th in the merge and their 1-5 spread was only 50 seconds. If both Alexander Jones and Aidan Fleming can keep Science’s 2^nd behind the and If their third runner can catch Bronx Science’s third runner, this race becomes quite close.

3. MSIT – This squad isn’t as deep as the team they had last year, but they’re under no serious threat to lose their 3^rd place spot. The real individual race is a race for 2^nd and Simon Saffeyeh will certainly be in that pack. Adam Zarrilli and Scott Kelly provide the difference between MSIT and the teams chasing them.

4. Stuyvesant - The Manhattan borough champs have finished in the top 4 every year since 2021. They probably have what it takes to extend that streak, but do not have any margin for error. Top runner Raphael Ramot should be in the battle for 2^nd, but their 2-5 runners don’t appear until after the top 25 in the merge. They’ll need to close the nearly 60 second gap between their 2^nd and 5^th runners to ensure their spot at Feds.

5. John Jay – A young team with not one senior on their roster. Even with one of their top returners moving to Connecticut, they’re still threatening the top four. The addition of Joseph Manzo, who finished 2^nd this past weekend in the City Freshman Championship, has helped ease that pain. Their top five runners run in a tight pack and have the ability to finish within thirty seconds of each other. If that pack can break up Stuy’s pack, you’ll see two Brooklyn schools at Feds.

6. LaGuardia - Ezekiel Cohen is a serious contender for 2^nd place this weekend and that low number should help the LaGuardia boys to what could be their highest finish in school history. The team’s main weakness (like many PSAL teams) is the lack of a solid 5^th man. However, they should place two runners in the top 20 and that will ease the pain of a 5^th man finishing outside the top 80.

7. Susan Wagner - The Falcons didn’t even qualify for this race last year, but the addition of the fastest freshman in PSAL history, Tristan Acevedo, has vaulted them into the top ten. This group is very similar to LaGuardia, 1 under 17, 1 under 17:15, 2 in the mid-18s, and a fifth man in the mid-20 minute range. Unlike LaGuardia, their top 3 will all return next fall.

8. HS for Math, Science and Engineering - This placement could change in either direction depending on if top runner Wren Hansen competes. He didn’t run at boroughs, but we won’t speculate as to why. If he runs they’ll have a chance to jump ahead of LaGuardia and Susan Wagner, especially since they have the ability to put seven runners before those team’s fifth man.

9. Hunter - This team is built very similarly to HSMSE (if you scored it as dual meet HSMSE wins 26-29) and could easily finish ahead of them on Saturday. Jasper Graham will be in the top 20, but the rest will struggle to break the top 40. If they do, the Hawks will rise up these standings.

10. Bard - Top runner Ramsey Hansen should find himself inside the top ten and their 2^nd runner should finish about a minute later. A minute after that come their 3-4-5 runners in a nice tight pack. If any of those improve, they’ll jump past their Manhattan counterparts.

11. Academy of American Studies - This is a team that began the season with very high hopes, but will now likely find themselves outside of the top ten. The Maru brothers will both likely finish in the top fifteen, but there’s a large gap after that. And with a 5^th man not likely to break 22 minutes, the advantage gained by the Maru brothers will quickly slip by the wayside.

12. Francis Lewis - The Queens champs have a solid 1-5 compression time of just about a minute, but their top guy, Eric Lin, will struggle to break the top 50.

13. Metropolitan Campus - A very similar team to their borough counterparts, their 1-5 spread is about 90 seconds, which will place them just behind Francis Lewis once again.

14. HS of American Studies - Their top runner, Declan Olds, will finish ahead of the top guys from Francis Lewis and Metropolitan Campus, but his supporting cast isn’t as strong.

15. James Madison - This group has the tightest 1-5 spread of any team in the field, the problem is that it starts at 19:20 and ends at 19:34.  

16. HS for Construction - Without Giuseppe Gambino, it will be an uphill climb to beat more than 1 or 2 teams on Saturday.

Girls Championship Race – 10:30 AM

Predicted Finish:

1. LaGuardia - The big favorites to take home the school’s first ever PSAL title, they’ll likely have 2 of the first 3 runners to finish. Naomi Douglas looks to break the PSAL record for Van Cortlandt, after running 18:33 at Boroughs. Gwyneth Shupp has also broken 20 minutes and will probably finish 3^rd.  When combining Boroughs times and season bests, the Lions line up 1-3-5-7-14 for a total of 30 points. This would beat Hunter’s 2023 PSAL record-low total by 8 points!

2. Susan Wagner - It’s taken all year, but the girls from Staten Island have rounded into form, and with Curtis transfer Riley Tefft and Melisa Davila leading the charge, they’ll come closest to scaring LaGuardia. According to our calculations, the deficit is about 60 points.

3. Brooklyn Tech - They may not have anyone land in the top ten, but should have three girls right outside of it, with Francesca Haidt, Evelyn Craig and Tatiana O’Neal. Their weakness is a large pack that might not finish until outside the top 50.

4. Stuyvesant - 4^th place through 6^th place is where it starts to get a little tricky. It looks like the Stuyvesant girls will have enough to grab the last Federation qualifier and extend their streak to  5 straight years. They should have two in the top 20 with Emma Savonije and Amanda Lee, but there’s a decent drop-off after that.

5. Hunter - They have the front-runner that Bronx Science lacks and their pack is young and fast improving. Their top five runners are 1 junior, 3 sophomores and 1 freshman. Junior Noa Yirmiyahu could be the difference-maker between the Hawks and the teams chasing them.

6. Bronx Science – We aren’t sure that their true top five has yet run together this season as top runner Sally Kramer did not run at Boroughs. They have a decent pack 2-5, but those girls might not cross the finish line until after the medals are distributed.

7. Riverdale/Kingsbridge Academy - Led by two rapidly improving sophomores, Lily Rustin and Addison Ireland (no surprise there), this team started the season unranked and is poised to grab a top-ten spot. For RKA, it will all depend on their 4^th and 5^th runners. If they can drop time from Boroughs, this is where they could land.

8. Beacon - The program with the top freshman team in the PSAL only ran one on varsity at Boroughs. Ilsa Gitt has been running remarkably well and is poised to medal at Cities. A decent pack comes in close behind her. If they can find a 5^th girl to run with that pack, they’ll jump ahead of a few more teams.

9. Townsend Harris - A perennial top-ten program will face a challenge from the team they beat in a tie-breaker at Boroughs. Natalia Piszczatowski should find herself in the top 20, which is something the top runners at Francis Lewis probably cannot say.

10. Francis Lewis - The Queens runners-up might have a slight advantage over Townsend Harris in that their 2^nd runner is faster than Townsend’s 2^nd runner and they can possibly place their 3^rd and 4^th before Townsend’s 3^rd. BUT, their 5^th runner was pretty far back at Boroughs, which is why they couldn’t dethrone Townsend Harris.

11. Columbia Secondary - Another team from off the preseason radar that could have two girls in the top 20, led by Eva Marmolejos. If 4 and 5 can break 25 minutes, they could also find themselves in the top ten.

12. HS for Math, Science and Engineering - Junior Phoebe Estep has been their top runner for 3 years now, and will probably crack the top 30. Sophomore Aiko Fitzgerald has shown constant improvement. The lack of a front-runner like the other Manhattan teams ahead of them drops them down this list.

13. Tottenville - This squad has the top Freshman in the PSAL in Maeve Heck and she is poised for a top five finish. However, the rest of the group lags behind and only two other girls broke 24 minutes at Boroughs. 2^nd runner Angelina Mavricos did not race at Boroughs. If she races this weekend Tottenville will jump into the top ten.

14. James Madison - If all of their girls show up on race day, they’ll finish close to the top ten. This is a group that won the Freshman City Championship three years ago, so this isn’t exactly where we thought they’d end up back then.

15. John Jay Campus - Sophomore city champ Matilda Quinn will battle for a top five finish, but it’s a big drop-off to a young group after that. The future is bright here, though.

16. The Clinton School - Give some thanks to Ella Jenson, their 2^nd runner who ran fast enough to ensure their team average was good enough to give us a Melia Murphy-Naomi Douglas rematch this Saturday.

17. West End Secondary - Top runner Jordan Citron didn’t run at Boroughs, but this group was able to pick up the slack and qualify for the championship race. If Citron runs, they should finish much higher.

18. Bard - Top runner Eleanor Lewis Jenkins has run much faster than she did at Boroughs, so we’ll give her the benefit of the doubt here, and that lifts Bard above the teams below them.

19. Midwood - Despite losing one of their top returning runners to transfer, they were still able to qualify for the Championship race for the first time since 2022.

20. Bayside - With two of their top runners from last year now running collegiately at Adelphi, it’s been a struggle to replace them. They’ll have a tough time beating more than 1-2 teams here.

21. HS of American Studies - Unfortunately, someone has to occupy this spot.

Athletes not on teams that qualified for the team championship can run in the individual race. If their time breaks into the Top 12 times of runners not on a top 4 team, they qualify for the Federation meet as an individual.

Boys Individual Race – 9 AM

Contenders: Yousef Abdelhakim (Midwood), Marco Arrojo (Lab Museum), Aden Thom (Columbia Secondary), Leopold Lussier (WESS), Jaisimha Dattatreyan (Lab Museum), Collin Toung (Manhattan Center), Jayron Salazar (Thomas Edison), David Kolaczko (Townsend Harris), Mason Tejada (RKA), Nicholas Allegretti (CSIHS/McCown)

Girls Individual Race – 9:30 AM

Contenders: Makayla McKenzie (Dewitt Clinton), Salimata Timite (Evander Childs), Rebecca Lin (HS of Fashion Industries), Julia Jackowska (Eleanor Roosevelt), Vesper Hume (Eleanor Roosevelt), Kylie Comas (Benjamin Cardozo), Queena Zhu (CSIHS/McCown), Bia Cialino (Curtis), Avery Taggart (Curtis)