Week Seven Recap

Week Seven was a pretty light week for the PSAL.

Section One Coaches Invitational – Woodlands High School, Hartsdale, NY

This year’s Section One Coaches Invite was not held at Bowdoin Park as it had been in years past. The Varsity Boys C race was 2.83 miles because the athletes accidentally went the wrong way. The Bronx Science boys finished 2nd, led by Liam Hernandez in 15:16. Their top two boys were perhaps running back with their pack to try to push them forward.

The Bronx Science girls finished 4th in the Varsity C race, running without a few of their top five. Rossitsa Petrova led the way with a 6th place finish in 20:33.

NYC XC Carnival – Van Cortlandt Park

Two Queens schools competed at Van Cortlandt Park, one week ahead of boroughs. The Francis Lewis girls finished 3rd of 13 teams, led by Daphne Lin’s 9th place finish. She ran 17:55 over the 4k course. The girls from HS for Construction finished 12th, led by Dorothy Lam’s 58th place finish.

The HS for Construction boys team finished 4th of 10 t7:06 eams in the Boys Varsity B race. Giuseppe Gambino won the race in 13:48 and his teammate Resean Dunlop finished 9th in 14:49 over the 4k course.

SIHST&FA Varsity/JV Island Champs – Dirt outside Ocean Breeze

Saturday on Staten Island was the annual Championship meet for all Staten Island schools, public and private. The MSIT boys won the championship with their 2-3-4-9-15 finish. Preston Kostioukov ran 15:45, Simon Saffeyeh ran 16:03 and Justin Berka, 16:05. In fact, all 7 MSIT boys ran 17:06 or faster. Now, we take these times with a grain of salt because this course is a joke, but these boys are obviously in shape to run fast times when they run a real course during PSAL championship season. Further down the team standings, Curtis finished 4th, led by Randy Nieva’s 8th place finish. Tottenville was next in 5th place led by Nicholas Cisak’s 23rd place finish. Susan Wagner, CSIHS/McCown and Port Richmond rounded out the standings in 7th, 8th, and 9th, respectively.

On the girls side, the Susan Wagner Waverunners finished 2nd to Notre Dame Academy. With freshman consisting of 4 of their top 7, they finished 4-6-11-13-14-15-27. Freshman Milani Jackson ran 20:13 for 4th and freshman Malina Rodriguez King ran 20:28 for 6th. Tottenville finished 3rd, led by Olivia McComiskey’s 5th place finish in 20:18. The MSIT girls were 5th, New Dorp girls were 7th and the Port Richmond girls were 9th. The fastest PSAL finisher in the race was Riley Tefft of Curtis, who ran 18:34 to finish 2nd. Curtis only finished 4 girls in the varsity race and didn’t run a single girl in the JV race. They’ll have to field a full team next week at Boroughs in order for Tefft to not get relegated to the Individual Race at Cities.

PSAL Rankings

Next weekend will tell us much more about where most teams stand. Only slight changes this weekend.

Boys

1. Brooklyn Tech

2. Bronx Science 

3. MSIT

4. HSMSE

5. John Jay Campus 

6. Stuyvesant

7. Curtis

8. LaGuardia

9. HS for Construction

10. Academy of American Studies (Queens)

Girls

1. Brooklyn Tech

2. LaGuardia

3. Bronx Science

4. Susan Wagner

5. Stuyvesant

6. Bayside

7. Beacon

8. HSMSE

9. Hunter

10. Townsend Harris

Stay tuned this week for an attempt at in-depth Borough Championship Previews!