**Community submitted article
Every once in a while, athletes have a season that even the casual fan of the sport can recognize as special. The NBA's Wilt Chamberlain averaged 50 points per game in his 1962 season. MLB Hall of Famer Babe Ruth hit more home runs than any team in the league during his 1921 campaign. The infamous Michael Jordan won the MVP, Scoring Title and Defensive Player of the Year in the same season.
Bayport-Blue Point senior Sophia McInnes is in the midst of one of those seasons.
The future Villanova Wildcat has absolutely torn apart the two months of the indoor track season, demonstrating her incredible range and unwavering tactic to push the pace from the gun. In a season when a lot of the cross country "elites" have chosen to take a lackadaisical approach to December (the first leg of the season), McInnes has chosen to do the opposite.
After some bad luck in cross country and a slew of unfortunately timed sicknesses, McInnes decided to take out her Fall frustrations on her competitors around the oval.
Section XI has had a remarkable influx of extremely high level individuals on the girls side the last few years. Successes highlighted by none other than four time Footlocker All-American, and multiple time sectional record holder, Zariel Macchia.
Macchia, a future BYU Cougar, has paved the way for athletes like McInnes, Lily Strebl, Ella Masem, Maggie McCormick, Cali Gabrielson, Mia Wickard, Lexi Cole, Fiona King, and many others to reach incredible heights.
But, McInnes' cross country season was nothing to sneeze at. The future Wildcat captured her second straight State Class B State Title over an extremely talented group of runners. The two-time State Champion caught an unfortunate case of COVID after demolishing the field at the Section 2's Burnt Hills Invite at SPAC on October 12th - an illness which in turn caused her to miss valuable training time just before the championship season. McInnes fought valiantly at the Federation meet, however it seemed as if her stolen time was ultimately too much to overcome. She emerged as a strong competitor for the majority of the grueling race, but could not bounce back quick enough to earn a qualifying mark for NXN. Most athletes would dwell on this, but McInnes has seemingly done the opposite. The results of Feds seem to have lit a fire under McInnes that has left the rest of the state in her wake.
If you haven't been paying attention, keep reading, because we will recap the start of what looks to be a truly historic season.
After a short break from cross country, McInnes took aim on big performances right out of the gate. 600m races translate little to the 5k, yet McInnes can do both at the highest of levels, to the misfortune of the States' prospects. On December 8th, when some of her peers were still racing up treacherous, grassy hills, McInnes went to her local meet at Suffolk County Community College, and she ripped her first 600m of the season, clocking a facility record.
If that wasn't enough, she ran without spikes, all by herself, and with absolutely no regard for running "too fast, too early."
Once mid-December rolls around, normal high school students are thinking about the holiday break ... and who can blame them? Twelve to sixteen days off, depending on the school district, and a much-needed break before the New Year - sounds nice, doesn't it? Instead of thinking about the impending break, McInnes decided to set her sights on one of the fastest 1000m races in the history of New York State.
BANG! The gun goes off...
With a race plan of "get out and run 33's" (I'll let you do the math of what 33 seconds a lap for five laps is), she commanded the race early and never looked back. McInnes extended her mounting lead and notched her name once again into the record books, stopping the clock at a blazing 2:45.66. With that run, the 17-year-old high school senior surpassed the incredibly impressive Katherine Lee from Shoreham Wading River (Class of 2018), as the Section 11 record holder and ran the fastest time in NY since Sammy Watson of Rush Henrietta.
One week later, Sophia decided to test the upper limits of her hard-earned track fitness. She ran a 3000m at the Armory against regional "monster" Blair Bartlett. And for the first time this season, she suffered a defeat, despite clocking an incredible time of 9:37.01.
It's been her only loss of the season so far.
Up next was the Invite Mile at Boston's 'The TRACK at New Balance' - a blazing and nearly brand new oval.
Here, she would face some of the best runners from the region on the newly constructed "TRACK," the host of the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships. One fast enough to help her produce the nation's fastest time by that point, a winning mark of 4:47.62 over the silver medalist at Foot Locker, bronze at NXN.
One week later, not satisfied with that result, she was back home at Armory, dropping her PR down to 4:46.98. McInnes is now less than a half second off the Sectional Record of 4:46.61 in the mile set in 2018 by Katherine Lee.
Fresh off her exploits in the longer distances, it was time to return to her roots. Entered in the 4x800m at Yale McInnes took the baton and ran one of the most astonishing relay splits by a Suffolk County girl ever and handed off to the third leg after a 2:07.00 split. If she ran that in an open race, she sets the Section 11 record by 2+ seconds and is barely off the outdoor record.
With one day of easy running, McInnes took a trip to the Armory to run the 600m with one goal in mind...the county record. The gun fired and McInnes sprang to the lead and torched the first lap in 29.02. At that point, she was trailing Fallon Siriban from Saint Anthony's. McInnes ripped the second lap in 30.34 to come through the 400m in a split that any coach north of Bullis would take on their 4x4 (59.36) and still had another lap to go. Just over 32 seconds later, McInnes stopped the clock at 1:31.70 to set her second county record of the year and improve her personal best from her flat track season opener.
Back at home, Leagues was on the docket. Running the true distance triple (3k, 1500m, 1000m), McInnes displayed her strength and versatility. It set her up for the rest of the season
Next up for McInnes is the 1000m at the Dr. Sanders Scorcher Invitational at the Armory where she will undoubtedly look to PR once again. She still holds the National Leader in the event by three seconds, but will be looking to improve that margin even further. After that, Sectionals leads into States, which leads into Nationals.
The best is yet to come.