Girls Spotlight
The Class A girls race is always one of the most exciting races of the Section XI championships. Class A has one of the best runners in the country in Zariel Macchia from William Floyd. She was William Floyd's first cross country state qualifier in years and is one of the favorites for the overall Class A title at states. An athlete from Section XI has not won the largest class title since 2002, when Laura Cummings upset Nicole Blood (who DNF'd) by winning the race on her home course in a fantastic time. Saratoga and Fayeteville Manlius have had the team titles locked down for the last 20+ years and that does not appear it will change this year-- but Zariel enters the season as at least a co-favorite to win the state title.
Zariel has not lost to a Section XI runner over 1000 meters since before Covid and it will take an incredible performance to beat her in XC. She is the only section XI girl to have a speed rating above 150 since Katherine Lee did it at Foot Locker in 2017. She was 12th at Eastbay Nationals (formerly Foot Locker/Kinney) last year. Additionally, she set the state freshman class records and the Suffolk County record in the 2 mile for both indoors and outdoors. The only thing that has eluded her in her short, but wildly successful, career has been a state title in track or cross country. She enters the 2022 cross country season as the biggest favorite in any of the 8 sections of the Section XI races.
Three of the top ten from last year have graduated but only one of them was an individual state qualifier (Bay Shore's Ella Lehman). Meanwhile, four of the next five after Macchia return. Last year's second place finisher is defending team champion Northport's middle schooler Mia Wickard. Wickard ran 19:34 at Sunken Meadow in what may be the 7th grade record at the course. Only going into 8th grade, Mia will look to improve upon her PR after an amazing track season which saw her break Nicole Blood's 3200 record at the Loucks Games when she ran 10:35.17 to finish sixth.
Anna Gansrow of Eastport South Manor was the third of three returners to break the elusive 20 minute barrier. She had a great spring track season which saw her run a PR of 4:46.7. After her, the other two remaining individual state qualifiers that return are Ward Melville's Amanda Probst and West Babylon's Kristen Aguilera. Both athletes had excellent track seasons and ran under 4:50 for 1500 (Aguilera ran a 5:02 full mile in February and Probst broke 4:50 at the State Qualifier). These accomplishments prove how both girls have only gotten better since last XC season.
Class A has a few girls whose track season performances indicate that they could surprise the field and finish in the top 5-10. Ava Capone from Deer Park had a great spring track season with great marks in the 1500 and steeplechase. She could easily factor into the state qualifying mix. Teammate Alexandra Geosits, who normally plays soccer, could make the switch and have an immediate impact based on her mid distance times. The same goes for Smithtown's Laina Freidman who ran a 4:36 1500 at Section XI's State Qualifier. We could see 10+ girls break 20:30 from Class A alone in early November.
Northport (39 points) won the 2021 title for the first time in almost a decade beating Federation meet qualifiers East Islip (88 points) and Ward Melville (103 points) . They were led by the three Wickard sisters who all return this year (and next). The Wickard twins, Mia and Finnley,finished second and sixth respectively in their first running season and they both continued to improve through June. While Mia focused on the 3000, Finnley took the steeplechase like a natural , setting the Section XI 7th grade steeplechase record (7:13) and had good marks in many of the other flat distances. Emily Wickard, the twins older sister has been sidelined the last two regular cross country seasons with injuries. She stayed healthy last spring and got her 3k down to 10:19 and ran a 5:05 full mile indoors. The three Wickard's combined with Senior Katie Hayes achieved All-American during indoor and outdoor track in the 4xMile. Hayes finished 15th overall last fall in the Class A race and was Northport's fifth runner. They will need to find a fifth runner to repeat over strong East Islip and West Babylon teams.
East Islip was very strong last year and also is led by a group of sisters. Olivia, Danielle, and Kathryn Simonetti are all coming back this year and were all in their top five last year. They will be stronger than they were last year and pose a legitimate threat to Northport. West Babylon returns all seven of their runners and had big improvements from a lot of their girls last spring. They will absolutely be in the mix and will look to make Federations at the very least. Section XI could send at least three teams to the Federation meet for the second year in a row and Section XI Class A is one of the deepest races not in Section 2 or 3.
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2021 had one of the best Class B races in recent history. The team race was decided by the sixth runner between Sayville and Shoreham Wading River after being tied at 63 points through five runners. The individual race was loaded and it took a faster time to make states in Class B than it did in Class A. 20:09 was the fifth place finisher last year and there were no members of the winning team in the top 5. For reference, in 2019, 20:04 was second place overall. The last 3 times the state meet was held, there were zero runners from the winning team in the top 5. This year, that may change but if you want to be on the bus, get in that top 5.
Unlike the other three classes for the girls, graduation hit the top of Class B hard. Three of the top four runners have moved on to run in college. Miller Place's 1-2 punch of Sierra Gray and Danielle Cirrito graduating will ensure us of a new champion. Middle distance sensation Sofia Condron of John Glenn who finished fourth has also graduated and will be running at Rutgers.
Losing those three runners will leave big shoes to fill, but based on 2022 spring track results, a few girls look ready to give it a shot. The top two returners are Mount Sinai's Paige Sheiffele and her twin sister Carli Sheiffele. Both twins made the state meet in 2021 and will be pre-season favorites to do so again. However, after the spring track season, we may have a different favorite. Emily Lamena of John Glenn was one of the top runners in the county in the 3000 and steeplechase last spring and has a ton of experience. She nearly broke 10 minutes in the 3000 last year (10:01) and was a state qualifier in that event in the winter as well. She broke 7 minutes in the steeplechase and was seventh at nationals in that event and was also All-State.
Mullane Baumiller of defending champion Sayville also had a huge spring. She finished an excellent fourth (top 7 were 10:20 or better) in the loaded Section XI 3000 last spring and owns a 10:13 PR. She improved tremendously as the year went on and could finish very high in November. She will look to lead Sayville to a repeat title this year and as they found out last year, every point will count. Look for her to be in the top 5 based on her improvements from last year.
A huge threat to win this title is someone who didn't run cross country last year but is switching over from soccer. Sophia Mcinnis improved a ton last spring and finished the year with a massive 4:36 1500 which was a six second personal best. Her breakout came at the Loucks games where she broke 11 minutes for 3200 and she continued that hot streak through the end of the season. She got her 3000 down to 10:11 which she ran twice and has an excellent kick if the race comes down to that. Beating any of the five girls previously listed will be a difficult task but November is still more than two months away. If anyone is going to do that it may be McInnis' teammate Eva Morris who had a very nice track season and was 8th last year.
63 to 63 is about as close as you can get as a score in a State Qualifier. Both teams were built with depth last year and had no finishers in the top 8 from either team. Since the top five finishers from the Class B race made up the five individuals who went to the State Meet, whichever team won the title would send all 7 runners upstate and the second place team would send zero. Sayville got the win last year and returns six of their seven runners. Shoreham returns five of their top six. Sayville seemed to have reached another level in spring track and enters 2022 as the favorites to repeat. They are much deeper and their track times are a step above Shoreham. Shoreham is looking for their first title since the Katherine Lee-lead team from 2016 which may just be Suffolk's best team ever. Shoreham will have to have improved over the summer in order to stay up with Sayville.
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Class C girls return the top three runners from the State Qualifier last year. This has the possibility to be an excellent individual race. Last year's champion, Kayla Hayes from Babylon, won by 40 seconds. Meanwhile, Ava Vaccarella from Mattituck had an excellent track season and ran a 10:42 3000 last spring and has a PR of 10:22 from 2019 . She has the best track credentials of this group of girls and may be able to win the title again (she won the Class C race in 2018 with a very fast 20:06 and was top 10 at States that year). Third place finisher from 2021, Emma Gold has a Sunken Meadow PR of 21:20 from the Division Championships and she was only in 8th grade. She also had some solid track performances in the spring. She broke 8 minutes in the steeplechase and broke 5:20 in the 1500 last year. 23:00 or better will most likely get you to the starting line at VVS as an individual this season.
This race, just like the boys race, will feature Class C and D racing together and the results being filtered afterwards. The top three runners that are returning are from Class C and will most likely be ahead of the Class D runners again. Whoever has put in the most work will have a good chance to take the title in an exciting Class C race.
This team race was extremely close last year and we may get another close race in 2022. Center Moriches graduated three of their top 7 from last year's championship team. Babylon, who was the runner up by two points last year, only lost one of their varsity runners to graduation. Center Moriches losing those three seniors could swing things in Babylon's favor come November. Babylon only lost their number two but just had six finishing runners at the 2021 State Qualifier. They will need to hope some new people come out for the team this season. Mattituck, the third of three scoring teams from 2021, returns five of seven runners but will have to make up the 20-30 second difference between their team average and Center Moriches/Babylon.
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Class D girls in Section XI has two teams that will field scoring teams but last year, Shelter Island and Southold both had individual runners that could make the State Meet. Only three runners from the entire race graduated last year so we may see similar results. We will have a new individual champion because one of those three graduates was Port Jefferson's Caelan Schretzmayer.
Three runners are coming back that broke 25 minutes at the State Qualifier. Francesca Lynch
Is the top returner from Southold and it will be her senior season. She finished 16 seconds ahead of incoming Pierson freshman Sara O'Brien. Port Jefferson senior sprint sensation Jenna Jacobs is the third girl under 25 minutes coming back. She focuses on the 100 and 200 in track but made States last year when she finished fourth. Someone new could disrupt the top three returners and swing the team battle as well. Keep an eye out for new names during the regular season.
Just like the Class B race and the Class C race from last year, this race will be very close. The dual meet nature of this race will have points meaning a ton. Port Jefferson had three runners in front of Pierson's second runner but still lost the team title by two points because of the fourth and fifth runners. Port Jefferson lost their number one runner and Pierson lost their number four runner. Pierson claimed the team title last year and Port Jefferson lost their top girl means that Pierson will enter as the favorite to repeat. Just like in the individual race, a new face could swing things in Port Jefferson's favor. Shelter Island and Southold will need to get more participation to factor into the team scoring. This team race will most likely be decided by five points or less.