Staten Island Boys
- 5 hours ago
- 4 min read
Next up are the Staten Island boys. There are 8 teams on the island and 6 of them have won a City Championship in their storied histories. This century, MSIT, Curtis and Susan Wagner have raised a banner. From the late 1960s to the 2010s, Staten Island was the dominant borough in PSAL Boys Cross Country. There’s a proud cross country tradition on the Island that doesn’t necessarily exist in the other four boroughs. The Public and Private schools on Staten Island hold their own Island Championship each season and continually celebrate their athletes.
Borough Champions
2021 - Susan Wagner
2022 - Susan Wagner
2023 - MSIT
2024 - MSIT
2025 - MSIT
Individual Champions
2021 - Joseph Perazzo - Susan Wagner - 16:31
2022 - Joseph Perazzo - Susan Wagner - 17:18
2023 - Keegan Baluja - CSIHS/McCown - 17:11
2024 - Preston Kostioukov - MSIT - 17:17
2025 - Simon Saffayeh - MSIT - 16:52
Top Ten Finishes at City Championship
1. Joseph Perazzo - Susan Wagner (2022)
2. Joseph Perazzo - Susan Wagner (2021)
3. Keith Connelly - Susan Wagner (2021)
5. Simon Saffayeh - MSIT (2025)
5. Simon Saffayeh - MSIT (2024)
5. Fernando Diaz - Susan Wagner (2022)
7. Tristan Acevedo - Susan Wagner (2025)
8. Adam Zarrilli - MSIT (2025)
8. Preston Kostioukov - MSIT (2024)
8. Keegan Baluja - CSIHS/McCown (2023)
9. Fernando Diaz - Susan Wagner (2021)
The PSAL website lists 8 boys programs on the PSAL’s website. We’ll rank their performance since the Pandemic in reverse order.
8. Petrides High School
Petrides has not competed in the Staten Island Borough Championships in the 2020s.
7. Port Richmond High School
Quick trivia question: Which team went on to win the Super Bowl the last time Port Richmond won the City Championship? Answer: The New York Jets! The last time they qualified for the City Championship was 2015 when they finished 20th. On the positive side, they have competed in the Borough Championship every year this decade. They negative is that they have yet to beat a single team, finishing last each year. Their top time of the decade is Hodaifa Elkayfe’s 19:10 at this last season’s City Championship Individual Race.
6. New Dorp High School
Another trivia question: What school won the City Championship the year before Port Richmond? Answer: New Dorp! New Dorp has competed at Boroughs every year but one this decade, with a top finish of 4th in 2021. However, they have not qualified for the City Championship this century. Their fastest time at VCP this decade was 19:40, run by John Pollack in 2021.
5. Tottenville High School
Tottenville has made only one appearance at the City Championship this decade, finishing 20th in 2023. They’ve competed each year at Boroughs, always finishing between 3rd and 5th. Joseph Squillacioti’s 16:54 in 2021 remains their fastest of the half-decade. The boy/girl split at Tottenville is an even 50/50, but the girls team is typically twice as large as the boys team, so it seems like they’ve struggled as of late to attract the talent necessary to return the program to the glory of the 1980s and 1990s.
4. CSIHS/McCown
CSIHS/McCown has qualified for the City Championship three times this decade, with a top finish of 14th in 2021. They’ve run in every Borough Championship this decade and have finished between 3rd and 5th each year. This is impressive considering they have just about half the boys to choose from in comparison to all of the other schools on the island. By far, their top runner this decade has been Keegan Baluja, who ran 17:00 at Bowdoin in 2023 to finish 43rd at the Federation meet, narrowly missing All-State honors.
3. Curtis High School
A city champion four times this century, Curtis last notched a top-four Cities finish in 2012. They’ve qualified for the City Championship only twice this decade, with a top finish of 7th in 2023 (we previously said their best finish was 12th in 2024, our mistake). In 2023, they lost a 6th-man tiebreaker at Boroughs to MSIT. They matched that 2nd place finish in 2024. Over the past years, they’ve had one or two talented runners transfer to Susan Wagner, so it’s been difficult to build the program back up. Randy Nieva’s 17:26 in 2023 is their top time of the half-decade.
2. Susan Wagner High School
Wagner started the decade with a heartbreaking loss at the 2021 City Championship, with Tech beating them on a 6th- man tiebreaker. They followed that with a 4th place and an 18th place finish before not qualifying in 2024. They bounced back in 2025 with a 5th place finish. Youth club running is big on Staten Island and most of the boys with running experience tend to enroll at Susan Wagner. Their latest freshman phenom, Tristan Acevedo set all kinds of PSAL records in the Fall and continued that success on the track. And while Acevedo will surely challenge this time, the top Falcon time of the decade belongs to Joseph Perazzo, who ran 16:04 at Bowdoin Park in 2022. At the time, it was the PSAL record, but since then three boys have run faster.
1. MSIT
It’s been a steady climb back to contention for MSIT. Their five City Championship this decade are 10th, 9th, 5th, 3rd, 3rd. They are also the three-time defending Staten Island Borough Champion. In 2025, Simon Saffayeh ran 16:40 at Van Cortlandt to set their top time of the half-decade. With over 60 boys on their roster each year, this is a program that should be able to find talent for years to come.
Staten Island Boys All Half-Decade Team
Joseph Perazzo (Susan Wagner)
Keith Connelly (Susan Wagner)
Simon Saffayeh (MSIT)
Fernando Diaz (Susan Wagner)
Preston Kostioukov (MSIT)
Tristan Acevedo (Susan Wagner)
Keegan Baluja (CSIHS/McCown)
Joseph Squillacioti (Tottenville)
Adam Zarrilli (MSIT)
Justin Berka (MSIT)