PSAL Championship Recap

This past Saturday in the dust of what’s left of Van Cortlandt Park, the PSAL crowned its champions. The Bronx Science boys ran away from everyone and the Brooklyn Tech girls out-dueled the LaGuardia girls to take home the banners. The day began with the individual races, for athletes on teams that did not qualify for the Championship race.

Boys Individual Race

The boys individual race was won by David Delcid of Susan Wagner in 18:15. He was followed by Nicholas Cisak of Tottenville (18:28) and freshman Marco Arrojo of Lab Museum (18:40).

Let’s look back at what we said in our preview:

Contenders: David Delcid (Susan Wagner), Nicholas Cisak (Tottenville), Roman Chin (Francis Lewis), Marco Arrojo (Lab Museum)

Roman Chin (Francis Lewis) did not compete, but otherwise, we nailed this one!

No one from this race qualified for the Federation Meet.

Girls Individual Race

Unlike the boys individual race, the girls race had some real firepower. Melia Murphy of The Clinton School won easily in 19:27. She was followed by Riley Tefft of Curtis in 20:12 and freshman Aisha Wajid of Dewitt Clinton in 21:05. All three of these girls will represent the PSAL at the Federation Meet in two weeks. Also qualifying for the Federation meet from this race were Eleanor Lewis Jenkins of Bard and Raquel Pasco of Chelsea Career and Technical.

Boys Championship Race

Bronx Science ended this one early, with 4 guys running 17:05 or faster. Overall, this race was much slower than last year’s edition with only 7 boys breaking 17 minutes. It was a close race for 2nd, but Brooklyn Tech (81 points) held off MSIT (88 points). Stuyvesant took the final Feds qualifying spot with 143 points.

The following boys qualified as individuals:

Umed Maru – Academy of American Studies

Jack McCurry – HS of American Studies

Ariel Yaron - LaGuardia

Jasper Graham – Hunter College Campus

Giuseppe Gambino – HS for Construction

Ramsey Hansen – Bard

Randy Nieva – Curtis

Gavin Ashe – John Jay Campus

Anand Maru – Academy of American Studies

Oliver Flor – Hunter College Campus

Brendan Hofmann – HS for Math, Science and Engineering

Isaac Tom – HS for Math, Science and Engineering

Team-by-team breakdowns (disclaimer: we don’t know everything that goes on behind the scenes at any of these schools, so some of this analysis is based purely on speculation)

Bronx Science

Predicted Finish:        1st                    Actual Finish:  1st 

Benjamin Berman won the individual crown in 16:10, followed closely by teammate Bansi Pande, who took 3rd in 16:24. Junior Liam Hernandez ran 16:52 for 6th and senior Nick Anderson ran 17:05 for 11th. Their final scorer was Alistair Blee, who ran 17:19 to finish 15th.  Their team total of just 36 points matched their total from their last championship in 2019.  They don’t always win (although with their proximity to VCP they should probably win way more), but when they do, they win convincingly.

Brooklyn Tech

Predicted Finish:        2nd                   Actual Finish:  2nd 

Alexander Jones and Amos Pres finished 2nd and 4th to give Brooklyn Tech a fighting chance, but their back pack was no match for Bronx Science. Dillon Chapuli (21st), Abraham Wilchins (24th) and Kavi Sieg (30th) were just enough to hold off MSIT, though. Between their varsity and JV, Tech had 10 boys run between 17:40 and 18:36. Tech hadn’t lost since the Pandemic restart because a some of that depth has usually stepped up to run much faster.

MSIT

Predicted Finish:        3rd                    Actual Finish:  3rd

Simon Saffayeh led the way for MSIT, finishing 5th. He was followed closely by Preston Kostiokov in 8th and Justin Berka in 17th. Their 4th-7th finishers were less than ten seconds apart, finishing 27th, 31st, 32nd and 33rd, but it just wasn’t enough to catch Tech

HS for Math, Science and Engineering

Predicted Finish:        4th                    Actual Finish:  6th 

Brendan Hofmann and Isaac Tom led the way, finishing 28th and 29th, qualifying as individuals for the Federation meet. They ran 17:58 and 18:00, respectively. After that however, the reliable pack was much further back than usual. They finished 51-53-58 to round out the scoring for HSMSE. Henry Dahl, who is normally one of their top runners, didn’t run at Boroughs and did not appear to be running at 100% yesterday.

Stuyvesant

Predicted Finish:        5th                    Actual Finish:  4th

Stuyvesant’s front-runner, junior Raphael Ramot finished 10th in 17:01. He was followed by James Anderson, finishing 19th in 17:35. Stuy sealed their trip to feds with a solid pack running effort. Their 3-7 runners finished 34-38-42-45-46, giving HSMSE a taste of their own medicine and jumping over them in the standings.

Hunter

Predicted Finish:        6th                    Actual Finish:  5th 

The two-time defending City runners-up finished 5th. They were led by the top sophomore in the race, Jasper Graham, who finished 13th in 17:16. Oliver Flor finished 26th, qualifying for Feds in the process. Their 3-5 finishing 37-57-60 was enough to hold off HSMSE. Unlike all but 1 other team (Curtis) in the championship race, Hunter did not run a JV team.

John Jay Campus

Predicted Finish:        7th                    Actual Finish:  7th 

Gavin Ashe’s 20th place finish was enough to qualify him for the Federation meet. Oliver Eaton finished 36th in 18:09. According to results, only 6 John Jay runners competed. If their top JV runner ran in the varsity race what he did in the JV race, they may have jumped HSMSE into 6th.

HS for Construction

Predicted Finish:        8th                    Actual Finish:  10th 

Giuseppe Gambino ran a great race to finish 14th in 17:18 and qualify for Feds. A few of their runners ran a little slower than they did at boroughs, which helps to explain their fall down the standings.

Curtis

Predicted Finish:        9th                    Actual Finish:  12th 

Randy Nieva ran 17:34 to finish 18th and qualify for the Federation meet. Noe Velez, their usual 2nd runner did not compete yesterday, which is why the slipped a little in the final standings.

Academy of American Studies

Predicted Finish:        10th                  Actual Finish:  9th 

The Maru brothers, Umed (7th, 16:58) and Anand (23rd, 17:46) both qualified for Feds, helping lead this program to its first ever Top 10 finish. Yassin Sabbar’s 27 second drop from boroughs also helped them jump HS for Construction and get a little payback for their loss at Boroughs two weeks ago.

Bard

Predicted Finish:        11th                  Actual Finish:  8th 

Ramsey Hansen led the way, finishing 16th in 17:22 and qualifying for Feds. 4th finisher James White dropped nearly a minute from boroughs, helping his team jump up the team standings into the top 10.

HS of American Studies

Predicted Finish:        12th                  Actual Finish:  11th 

Jack McCurry ran 17:00 to finish in the top ten and their 2-5 runners crossed within 50 seconds of each other to finish 50-62-64-73.

LaGuardia

Predicted Finish:        13th                  Actual Finish:  14th 

Ariel Yaron qualified for Feds with his 12th place finish in 17:14, but there was a big drop after that. This could have been a different season, but Nico Watson didn’t return and Ezekiel Cohen, who had a spectacular season going, sustained an injury that forced him to miss Boroughs and  hobbled him at Cities. LaGuardia was the only team to make both Championship races that had just as many boys break 20 minutes as it did girls (2).

Thomas Jefferson

Predicted Finish:        14th                  Actual Finish:  13th 

Four of their top 5 ran faster than they did at Boroughs, led by Isaiah Jacob Noel running 18:57 to finish 54th.

Metropolitan Campus

Predicted Finish:        15th                  Actual Finish:  16th 

Their top finisher was Zakariya Muntaz, who finished 69th in 19:30. Unfortunately, their finish of 69-70-71-89-91 wasn’t good enough to beat any other teams in the race.

Forest Hills

Predicted Finish:        16th                  Actual Finish:  15th 

Each of their top 5 ran faster than they did at Boroughs, helping them jump out of the cellar and into 15th place. Alfred Chen finished 49th in 18:49 to lead the way.

Girls Championship Race

Unlike the Boys race, the winner of the girls race could not be determined by the eye test. When the scores were compiled, it showed Brooklyn Tech with a 9 point win over LaGuardia for the championship.

Those who read this blog might ask themselves why we drone on about the impact of freshman on the girls side. Take a look at the top five teams this season and how many current or former Fast Freshman™ they ran in the race… and then compare that to teams 6-10.

1. Brooklyn Tech 3          (Andrews, Haidt, Craig)

2. LaGuardia 2          (Douglas, Backus)

3. Stuyvesant 0

4. Bronx Science 2          (Petrova, McDonough)

5. Susan Wagner 2          (Rodriguez-King, Jackson)

_______________________________

6. Bayside   0

7. Beacon   0

8. Hunter    1          (Yirmiyahu)

9. Tottenville  0

10. Townsend Harris 0

The following girls qualified as individuals in this race:

Noa Yirmiyahu – Hunter College Campus

Christina Sakellis – Bayside

Malina Rodriguez-King – Susan Wagner

Milani Jackson – Susan Wagner

Haley Rodriguez – HS of American Studies

Olivia McComiskey – Tottenville

Melisa Davila – Susan Wagner

Team-by-team breakdowns (disclaimer: we don’t know everything that goes on behind the scenes at any of these schools, so some of this analysis is based purely on speculation)

LaGuardia

Predicted Finish:        1st                    Actual Finish:  2nd 

LaGuardia became the third team to have girls finish 1-2 at the City Championship. Surprisingly, none of those teams won. Naomi Douglas won in 18:50, followed by her teammate Gwyneth Shupp in 19:38. However, their 3rd, 4th and 5th runners all lost to their Brooklyn Tech counterparts. Senior Anya Eder did all she could to keep it close, running a huge PR of 21:56 to finish 24th.

Brooklyn Tech

Predicted Finish:        2nd                   Actual Finish:  1st

Susana Sharp’s second straight 3rd place finish helped mitigate LaGuardia’s only scoring 3 points with their first two runners. Sophomore Francesca Haidt ran 20:51 to finish 8th and Fast Freshman™ Evelyn Craig ran 21:06 to finish 11th. This was the real difference, as LaGuardia’s 3rd runner didn’t cross until 45 seconds and 9 places later. Lara Koblov edged out LaGuardia’s 4th runner at the line and Corina Zheng finished 7 places ahead of LaGuardia’s 5th runner. The Tech girls went out strong, leading by 20 points heading into the hills. But the Ghosts slowed them, and LaGuardia came out only 4 points behind. That was as close as it would get, though.

Stuyvesant

Predicted Finish:        4th                    Actual Finish:  3rd

No team in the race even had 6 runners across before Stuy had all 7, but lacking the front-runners, it didn’t matter much. The battle for the bronze was much closer as Stuy edged out Bronx Science by 2 points. Emma Savonije finished 6th with a huge season-best of 20:26. Emily Li finished 12th in 21:12. The girls from Chambers Street gained the edge on Bronx Science by placing all 7 girls before Bronx Science’s 5th runner.

Bronx Science

Predicted Finish:        3rd                    Actual Finish:  4th 

Rossitsa Petrova and Charlotte Wang finished 5th and 7th respectively as Science was the 2nd school with 2 finishers in. 4th runner Adelaide McDonough beat Stuy’s 4th runner, but their 5th runner didn’t cross until 5 places after Stuy’s 7th runner, keeping them in 4th place.

Susan Wagner

Predicted Finish:        5th                    Actual Finish:  5th

The Baby Falcons beat their merge score by a ton and will definitely be a team to reckon with down the road as their entire top 5 are freshmen or sophomores. Their top 3 all qualified for Feds. Freshmen Malina Rodriguez King and Milani Jackson finished 10th and 13th, respectively to lead the way.

Hunter College Campus

Predicted Finish:        6th                    Actual Finish:  8th

To be fair, Ella Cohen did not run, which added nearly 90 points to their score. Sophomore Noa Yirmiyahu finished 4th in 20:13. Their 3rd and 4th runners are both freshmen, so only time will tell which direction this program goes. Like their boys team, Hunter did not have a single girl compete in the JV race.

Beacon

Predicted Finish:        7th                    Actual Finish:  7th

Beacon ran without their normal top runner, June Selib, and still managed an impressive top ten finish. Saturday, Beacon’s top runner, Willow Roundy only beat the top runner from two other teams in the field, but their 2-5 runners finished within 22 seconds of each other to finish 48-49-52-54.

Bayside

Predicted Finish:        8th                    Actual Finish:  6th

Led by Christina Sakellis’s tremendous race, running more than 30 seconds faster than she did at boroughs, each girl in Bayside’s top 5 ran faster than they did two weeks ago. This 6th place finish is almost certainly the highest in program history. They also got some payback on Townsend Harris for the crushing loss at Boroughs.

Townsend Harris

Predicted Finish:        9th                    Actual Finish:  10th

Townsend Harris’s normal top runner didn’t have her best day, but fellow sophomore Deanna Maleki picked up the slack with a 55th place finish in 23:23.

James Madison

Predicted Finish:        10th                  Actual Finish:  14th

Top runners Kamora Ruelas (didn’t race) and Aneika Owolabi-Fajana (DNF) didn’t factor into the scoring, so Madison dropped further down the standings than expected. Junior Olivia Nanes ran 21:53 to finish 21st.

HS for Math, Science and Engineering

Predicted Finish:        11th                  Actual Finish:  11th

Alina Mertens Schill picked up the slack for a missing Phoebe Estep with a 27th place finish in 22:06. Freshman Vada Bank ran 22:41 in the JV race. If you plug her into the varsity race it’s possible HSMSE could have finished as high as 7th.

Riverdale/Kingsbridge Academy

Predicted Finish:        12th                  Actual Finish:  15th

Running with Ofelia Villanueva pushed them down in the standings, but with two freshmen in their top 3, Lily Rustin and Addison Ireland, the future could be bright in the Bronx.

Francis Lewis

Predicted Finish:        13th                  Actual Finish:  12th

Their top 3 did not run nearly as fast as they did two weeks ago, but the appearance of Mia Leon and her sub-25 5k helped them finish higher than expected.

Tottenville

Predicted Finish:        14th                  Actual Finish:  9th

OK, we probably owe them an apology. Olivia McComiskey ran 21:32 to finish 15th and qualify for the Federtaion meet. Angelina Mavricos ran over a minute faster than she did at Boroughs to finish 34th. Kiersten Dalton and Aurelia James also ran way faster than two weeks ago, which is how they jumped from 14th in the merge to 9th at Cities.

John Jay

Predicted Finish:        15th                  Actual Finish:  16th

Without their full top five from two weeks ago, it was always going to be an uphill battle to beat any other teams in this race.

HS of American Studies

Predicted Finish:        16th                  Actual Finish:  13th

Haley Rodriguez ran a great race to finish 14th in 21:21, 35 seconds faster than she did two weeks ago. The rest of their top 5 followed suit and ran faster, vaulting their team up the standings and beating their finish in the merge by 3 spots.

Boys JV Race

To nobody’s surprise, the top 4 teams in the varsity race were also the top 4 in the JV race. This time, however, Brooklyn Tech got the better of Bronx Science, 27-43. Science did take the top 2 spots, though, with Elijah Hernandez (17:45) and freshman Aldo Hilpert-Navas (18:01).

Girls JV Race

Brooklyn Tech’s Chloe Nebel out-dueled Stuyvesant’s Kanchanok Zhang, 22:03 to 22:16 for the win. Both girls would’ve broken into their team’s varsity squads with those times. Brooklyn Tech beat Stuyvesant in the team race, 27-32.