Staten Island Girls
- 2 days ago
- 4 min read
From 1980 to 2013, schools from Staten Island won 26 of the 34 City Championships. Four of the eight Staten Island schools won championships, with Tottenville leading the way with 18. Curtis and MSIT have also won multiple titles and even Port Richmond won one. However, no Staten Island school has won a title since 2013. This decade only one school, Susan Wagner in 2025, has finished in the top four at Cities to qualify for the Federation Meet. Five of the eight schools have qualified for the City Championship this decade.
Borough Champions
2021 - Tottenville
2022 - Tottenville
2023 - Susan Wagner
2024 - Susan Wagner
2025 - Susan Wagner
Individual Champions
2021 - Sophia Debellas - Tottenville - 22:17
2022 - Gianna Badamo - Tottenville - 22:18
2023 - Olivia McComiskey - Tottenville - 22:31
2024 - Riley Tefft - Curtis - 20:00
2025 - Maeve Heck - Tottenville - 20:14
Top Ten Finishes at City Championship
4. Maeve Heck - Tottenville (2025)
7. Melisa Davila - Susan Wagner (2025)
10. Malina Rodriguez King - Susan Wagner (2024)
The PSAL website lists 8 girls programs on the its 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 Championship this decade.
7. Port Richmond High School
Port Richmond have competed in four of the five Staten Island Borough Championship meets, finishing last each time with the exception of last Fall, when they beat New Dorp. A serious program in the early 2010s, they’ve fallen on hard times. Their top time this decade was run by Makayla Boadi, who ran 25:54 in 2025.
6. New Dorp High School
New Dorp have run in the last four Borough Championships this decade, missing only 2021. They’ve finished 6th or 7th in each one, beating only Port Richmond. With 1,400 girls in the school, they probably should be seeing better results. Malak Elsaid ran 26:29 in 2025 to set their decade standard.
5. CSIHS/McCown
For being one of the smaller programs on the Island, McCown puts forth a consistent program. They’ve competed each year at the Staten Island Borough Championships and only finished worse than 4th one time (2025). They qualified for the City Championship just once, however, in 2021, where they finished 18th of 19 teams. Queena Zhu’s 23:36 in 2025 is their fastest time this decade.
4. Curtis High School
Curtis has three city titles this century, but hasn’t qualified for the City Championship since 2021, when they finished 11th. Both that year and last year they finished 3rd at the Staten Island Borough Championship. With nearly 1,300 girls in the school, this slump probably won’t last forever. Riley Tefft transferring to Wagner didn’t help, she was their fastest runner of this decade, running 20:00 as a sophomore in 2024.
3. MSIT
The back-to-back titles in 2012-2013 seem like a distant memory. They have not qualified for the Federation meet since 2017 and have not qualified for the City Championship since 2023. Their best finish in that meet was 10th in 2021. Unfortunately for this program they aren’t getting girls who can break 25 minutes anymore, so there’s little talent to develop. Their top runner this decade was Sahar Mollah, who came in with a ton of running experience, but didn’t see a lot of improvement, running just under 22 minutes at VCP.
2. Tottenville High School
The winningest program in PSAL history hasn’t won a title since 2006. Although they’ve qualified for the City Championship ever year and have four top-ten finishes, they have not qualified for the Federation Meet this decade. With nearly 1,900 girls to choose from and a population similar to state powerhouse Arlington, this is a program that should be contending every year. The Pirates have won two Staten Island Borough Championships this decade and their top runner of the decade, Maeve Heck, was only a freshman in 2025. Heck, a rising 10th grader with many years of competitive running experience, broke twenty minutes at Bowdoin Park last Fall.
1. Susan Wagner High School
In 2025, Susan Wagner finished 2nd in the City, the best finish in program history (they were also 2nd in 2017). After not qualifying for the City Championship in 2021, they’ve raced it every year since, bettering their finish each year. They’ve won the past three Staten Island borough championships. It’s a well-coached group that has a combination of club kids and talent they’ve developed. Their top runner this decade is Melisa Davila, who ran 20:42 as a junior after not running XC as a freshman. Another non-club kid, Fatima Belem Vilchis, didn’t break 24 minutes in her first 5k effort as a sophomore, but was running low 21 minutes by the end of her junior season.
The Staten Island GIrls All Half-Decade Team
Sophia Debellas (Tottenville)
Gianna Badamo (Tottenville)
Angelina Mavricos (Tottenville)
Olivia McComiskey (Tottenville)
Milani Jackson (Susan Wagner)
Malina Rodriguez-King (Susan Wagner)
Fatima Belem Vilchis (Susan Wagner)
Riley Tefft (Curtis/Susan Wagner)
Maeve Heck (Tottenville)
Melisa Davila (Susan Wagner)