Week Six Recap

This past weekend, most PSAL teams who raced did so at the prestigious Manhattan Invitational. But we’ll start with those who did not.

Fordham Developmental #2

The Townsend Harris girls won the Fordham Developmental Varsity race on Friday evening. Junior Natalia Piszczatowski won the race in 17:15. The Bayside girls were 2^nd, led by the 2^nd place finish of Jessica Ryan in 17:30. Boys and Girls finished 7^th.

The Boys and Girls boys finished 5^th, led by Justin Theodore in 17:22

Manhattan Invitational Recap

Boys Freshman A

Joseph Manzo of John Jay Campus won the 1.5 mile race in 8:26. His team finished 10^th. The Brooklyn Tech freshmen finished 4^th and the Bard freshmen finished 8^th.

Girls Freshman A

The Brooklyn Tech girls finished 4^th of the 8 teams, led by the 10^th and 11^th place finishes of their top two freshmen, Anneliese Evans and Mayte Vidal Flores. The WESS freshmen were 8^th.

Boys Freshman B

Susan Wagner freshman Tristan Acevedo won this race, running the fastest freshman time of the day, 7:49. However, the Falcons did not field a full team. Bronx Science finished 6^th, led by Miles Dutra (club teammate of Manzo from John Jay Campus). Stuyvesant finished 7^th, HSMSE finished 9^th, MSIT finished 10^th and LaGuardia finished 15^th.

Girls Freshman B

The HSMSE freshmen finished 7^th of the 10 full teams in this race. The top PSAL finisher was Penelope Schonfeld from Bronx Science, who finished 13^th.

Boys Freshman C

Tyler Lee of Curtis was the only PSAL runner in this race. He finished 30^th in 9:37

Girls Freshman C

The John Jay Campus Freshmen finished 5^th, led by a 29^th place finish by Samantha Garcia-Moreno.

Boys Freshman D

There were no complete PSAL teams in this race, but the top PSAL finisher was Rowan Harper of Lab Museum, who finished 33^rd.

Boys Sophomore A

24 teams competed in the Boys Sophomore A race. Brooklyn Tech finished 6^th, Hunter was 8^th, MSIT was 12^th and John Jay Campus was 21^st. Top PSAL runners in this race were Lucien Jaccon (Hunter, 9^th in 14:39), Lowen Zuo (Hunter, 13^th in 14:46), Joshua Zaytsev (MSIT, 20^th in 14:59) and Felix Lemm (Brooklyn Tech, 21^st in 14:59).

Girls Sophomore A

The Brooklyn Tech girls finished 2^nd, led by Evelyn Craig, who finished 5^th in 17:15. Midwood finished 8^th and WESS finished 12^th.

Boys Sophomore B

The Sophomore team from Bronx Science finished 10^th, followed by HSMSE in 11^th and Bard in 15^th.  The top finishers were Kiran Kamath (Bronx Science, 16^th in 15:07), Noah Katz (WESS, 36^th in 15:34) and Griffin Egozi (Bard, 38^th in 15:34)

Girls Varsity A

Of the 25 teams who toed the line, 4 were PSAL squads. Brooklyn Tech finished 12^th, Stuyvesant 14^th, RKA 15^th and Francis Lewis 18^th. Neither Brooklyn Tech nor Stuyvesant were at full strength, but this was a tremendous effort from RKA. Their top two runners, both sophomores, ran huge races. Lily Rustin was 37^th in 16:46 and Addison Ireland was 61^st in 17:22. Both beat a number of girls that had beaten them all season long. Other top PSAL finishers were Francesca Haidt (Brooklyn Tech, 24^th in 16:20), Emma Savonije (Stuyvesant, 33^rd in 16:41), Tatiana O’Neal (Brooklyn Tech, 41^st in 16:53) and Daphne Lin (Francis Lewis, 56^th in 17:21).

Boys Varsity A

Simon Saffeyeh from MSIT won the race in an impressive 12:57. Teammate Adam Zarilli was 7^th in 13:25 to help their squad finish 3^rd overall. John Jay Campus, running without 2 of their top 5, finished 10^th overall. CSIHS/McCown finished 22^nd.

Girls Varsity B

Of the 4 PSAL teams in this race, perhaps the biggest surprise was that the only one to have 7 runners finish was Hunter. Susan Wagner finished 12^th overall, led by the 1-2 combo of juniors Melisa Davila (31^st, 16:25) and Riley Tefft (34^th, 16:32). Hunter finished 18^th overall, led by Noa Yirmiyahu who finished 32^nd in 16:27) Beacon finished 21^st, led by June Selib who ran 17:27 to finish 71^st.

Boys Varsity B

The Stuyvesant boys finished 9^th of the 28 teams in this race. Senior Raphael Ramot ran 13:18 to finish 7^th. Lab Museum finished 24^th. Sophomore Marco Arrojo ran an outstanding time of 13:50 to finish 22^nd.

Girls Varsity C

Three complete PSAL teams raced in the Varsity C race. Bronx Science finished 15^th overall, but were slightly shorthanded. Sally Kramer ran 17:22 to finish 64^th for the Wolverines. Columbia Secondary finished 17^th, led by Eva Marmolejos running 16:34 to finish 28^th. CSIHS/McCown finished 24^th, led by Olivia Hsu’s 111^th place finish in 18:41. Noelle Barone of Midwood ran 18:06 to finish 90^th.

Boys Varsity C

HS for Construction finished 17^th out of the 28 teams in this race. Giuseppe Gambino ran 13:25 to finish 13^th overall.

Girls Varsity D

The top PSAL team in Varsity D was HSMSE, who finished 15^th. They were led by Phoebe Estep’s 44^th place finish in 17:07. WESS finished 17^th, led by Charlotte Widensky finishing 86^th in 18:20. Bard ran without their top runner and finished 23^rd. Manhattan Center finished 26^th.

Boys Eastern States

The Bronx Science boys took on some of the best teams in the entire northeast and finished 6^th overall. They were the top New York team in the field (although Chaminade ran without one of its top guys). Benjamin Berman finished 3^rd overall in a blazing 12:16. That’s the fastest PSAL time of all-time (by far) and it ranks him in the Top 25 of all time on the 4K course at VCP. Their 2-5 runners crossed within 8 seconds of each other to finish 60-61-73-74. LaGuardia finished 22^nd and top runner Ezekiel Cohen ran 12:59 (a school record) to finish 27^th.

Girls Eastern States

The LaGuardia girls finished 9^th here, led by Naomi Douglas running 15:09 to finish 16^th. Their 2-6 runners finished with a :35 spread, including freshman June Grunden running 17:00, which is fast enough for us to call her a Fast Freshman™ (LaGuardia’s 3^rd in the last 4 years).

Melia Murphy of The Clinton School ran 14:51 to finish 11^th, which, best we can tell, is the fastest time run by a PSAL girl this century (and maybe all-time).

Boys Varsity D

Brooklyn Tech finished 7^th here, and we saw the return of Alexander Jones, who finished 20^th in 13:28. Bard finished 14^th, led by Ramsey Hansen finishing 24^th in 13:35. Susan Wagner, running without their top freshman, finished 18^th. Andrea Gallina finished 27^th in 13:38. Columbia Secondary finished 31^st.

Boys Varsity E

In Varsity E, HSMSE finished 10^th overall, led by Wren Hansen finishing 20^th in 13:50.  Hunter, running without their top sophomores, finished 22^nd. Jasper Graham ran 13:54 to finish 24^th. WESS finished 24^th and RKA finished 25^th.

Girls Varsity E

Matilda Quinn of John Jay Campus was the top PSAL finisher in this race. She finished 20^th in 16:26. James Madison finished 17^th of the 20 teams here, led by the duo of Olivia Nanes and Milani Modeste, who both ran 17:46.

Boys Varsity F

James Madison finished 16^th of the 25 teams in Varsity F. Dylan Lugo ran 15:10 to finish 81^st. Manhattan Center finished 24^th.

Girls JV A

The Brooklyn Tech girls finished 6^th of 14 teams.

Boys JV B

The MSIT boys finished 3^rd of 15 teams.

Girls JV B

The Bronx Science girls finished 6^th and Francis Lewis finished 11^th of 13 teams.

Boys JV C

The Brooklyn Tech boys won the team race by 3 points over Egg Harbor Township.

Girls JV C

The WESS girls finished 8^th of the 10 teams.

Boys JV D

The Bronx Science boys won the team race, finishing 1-2-3-9-11. Sophomore Aldo Hilpert-Navas ran 13:55 to win the race. This would have made him both Brooklyn Tech’s and MSIT’s 3^rd finisher. Those are the 2 teams closest to Bronx Science.

Girls JV D

The LaGuardia girls won the team race. Sophomore River Duerr won the overall race in 17:37. Of the teams chasing LaGuardia, she would have been Susan Wagner’s and Tech’s 4^th, Stuy’s 3^rd, and Science’s 2^nd finisher.

Boys JV E

The HSMSE boys finished 5^th of 8 teams.

BHXC PSAL Rankings

Girls

1. Fiorello LaGuardia - When your 8^th fastest girl would be top 5 on any other PSAL team, there is a zero percent chance you don’t win the City Championship. The key number now is 38 points. That is Hunter’s record score from 2023 and it’s in big trouble this season. They were an impressive 15^th in the Manhattan merge.

2. Brooklyn Tech - Revealed a solid sophomore team this weekend. Surprising since they only have a little more than 600 sophomore girls to choose from.

3. Susan Wagner - Riley Tefft ran closer to Melisa Davila this weekend, which is positive news for this group. 64^th in the Manhattan Merge.

4. Bronx Science - 79^th in the Manhattan Merge, but their top JV runner would have been their 3^rd finisher.

5. Stuyvesant - 78^th in the Manhattan Merge without their 2^nd runner, but a very large spread between their 4^th and 5^th runners.

6. Hunter - 88^th in the Manhattan Merge, probably running at full strength.

7. Beacon - 106^th in the Manhattan Merge, but these rankings reflect what we think their freshmen will do.

8. RKA - This team took a huge jump this weekend, quite impressed with their top 2 runners.

9. Tottenville - Took another weekend off.

10. Townsend Harris - a much closer pack than RKA or Tottenville. Top girl ran well to win on Friday evening.

11. HSMSE - 95^th in the Manhattan Merge

12. Francis Lewis - 96^th in the Manhattan Merge

13. Columbia Secondary School - 103^rd in the Manhattan Merge, top girl will threaten the top ten at Cities.

14. WESS - 107^th in the Manhattan Merge. Solid pack 1-4, 5^th runner back a bit

15. James Madison - Starting to see a team come together. 114^th in the Manhattan Merge

16. Bard - 126^th in the Manhattan Merge without their top runner.

17. John Jay Campus - Matilda Quinn could finish in the top five, but they couldn’t put 5 varsity girls on the line this weekend.

18. The Clinton School - Melia Murphy will mount a serious challenge to Naomi Douglas come November.

Honorable Mentions:

19. Bayside

20. Midwood

21. HS of American Studies

22. CSIHS/McCown

Boys

1. Bronx Science - Finished as the top New York team in the Manhattan Merge - 8^th overall

2. Brooklyn Tech - The return of Alexander Jones jumps them ahead of MSIT. 38^th in Manhattan Merge

3. MSIT - 39^th in Manhattan Merge

4. John Jay Campus - 96^th in the Manhattan Merge without 2 of their top 5 (one ran in the frosh race). We are unsure where the other was.

5. Susan Wagner - 105^th in the Manhattan Merge without their star freshman

6. Stuyvesant - 82^nd in the Manhattan Merge without any sophomores. If Ramot gets back on track, he’ll contend for 2^nd overall behind Berman.

7. HSMSE - 83^rd in the Manhattan Merge. A top runner still missing but hasn’t been seen all season.

8. LaGuardia - Ahead of Stuy and HSMSE in the Manhattan Merge, but that’s only because of their star runner Cohen. There won’t be that many places in the PSAL race.

9. Bard - 85^th in the Manhattan Merge.

10. Hunter - 137^th in the Manhattan Merge, but without 2 of their top 5.

11. Francis Lewis - took the weekend off

12. HS for Construction - 118^th in the Manhattan Merge. Gambino rounding into form.

13. Academy of American Studies - took the weekend off

14. Lab Museum - 154^th in the Manhattan Merge without their 2^nd runner.

15. James Madison - 149^th in the Manhattan Merge

16. Metropolitan Campus - took the weekend off

Honorable Mention:

17. HS for American Studies

18. RKA

19. CSIHS-McCown

20. WESS

21. Harry S Truman

Upcoming Meets…

Semi-Quiet Weekend before Boroughs. Teams are entered in meets, but not sure if their top runners will all compete.

Borough Frosh/Soph Championships this Tuesday and Wednesday at parks around the city.

George Calano - Collegiate School Invitational @ VCP

Townsend Harris girls

NYC XC Carnival @ VCP

HS for American Studies, Beacon, Francis Lewis, HS for Construction, Hunter, Metropolitan Campus, Stuyvesant

Section One Coaches Invitational @ Bowdoin Park

Academy of American Studies, HSMSE, RKA

Staten Island Varsity Championships @ Ocean Breeze Athletic Complex

Staten Island PSAL squads take on their CHSAA counterparts.