CBA Boys, Bethlehem Girls Run Away With Commanding Team Titles At VCP

By Oliver Hinson for DyeStat

John Nepolitan photos

NEW YORK CITY - The Christian Brothers Academy NJ boys and Bethlehem Central NY girls dominated the Eastern States Championship races, as expected, at the Manhattan High School Cross Country Invitational at Van Cortlandt Park.

The No. 2-ranked CBA boys scored just 25 points, led by UNC commit Joe Barrett, who ran 12:20.7 for his second straight individual victory, making him only the third male runner to take back to back Eastern States titles. Noah Affolder did it in 2015 and 2016, and Edward Cheserek did it in 2011 and 2012.

Barrett credited his teammates with helping him perform to his best today.

“If I didn't have my team behind me and if I wasn't racing for my team, I think this would have turned out different,” Barrett said. “It was a hard day out there for me, and I was just thinking about my team, thinking, I can't give up on them, so I ran through the race.”

Behind him, junior Luke Hnatt and senior Ryan Schmidt took fourth and fifth place overall, followed by sophomore Gavin Schmitt in seventh and senior Alex Mastroly in eighth.

CBA’s spread was just under 30 seconds, with Mastroly crossing the line in 12:49.1. The team’s five-man average was a blistering 12:41, just nine seconds from the all-time record.

It was the Colts' ninth Eastern States victory in the past 16 years.

“We’ve never done that before,” Barrett said. “It just shows you how deep our team is this year and how we're gonna race later in the season.”

Loomis Chaffee CT junior Alex Fisher took second overall in 12:27.7.

Fisher said his IT band had been flaring up earlier in the week, so he was definitely pleased with, if not surprised by, his performance.

Tri-Valley senior Van Furman was third in 12:40.5. In the team race, no one was particularly close to CBA; Haddonfield Memorial NJ and Boston College High School MA tied for second with 176 points each.

In the Varsity D race that followed Eastern States, Marshall Vernon from La Salle Academy RI ran the second-fastest overall time when he crossed the line in 12:24.7. He won by more than 25 seconds. 

In the girls Eastern States championship, Bethlehem enjoyed a similarly dominant team performance, scoring 24 points to runner-up Champlain Valley Union VT’s 103.

Sophia Cromczak, an eighth grader, led the way for Bethlehem with a third-place finish and a time of 14:40.3. Their next four runners employed some stellar pack running, finishing eighth through 11th with a four-second spread between them. In addition to a trophy, the team members also received a piece of carrot cake from nearby Lloyd’s, a prize that has become synonymous with this meet.

Bethlehem also won in 2021.

BYU commit Zariel Macchia of Long Island's William Floyd High took the individual crown for the second year in a row, closing hard down the home stretch to beat Tatnall DE senior Katie Payne in 14:24.

It was Macchia’s third meet of the season. In late August she competed for the U.S. at the World Athletics U20 Championships in Peru.

She came into Sunday knowing that she was in good shape. She also won the Suffolk Officials Invitational on Friday, running 18:50.3 at Sunken Meadow State Park. 

“Some of the workouts that I've done have been equal to the best workouts that I've done in past years,” Macchia said. “Running those kinds of workouts that I was using to get ready for nationals, at this point in the season, has shown me where I'm at.”

Payne ran 14:30.3 for second. She said the pace was more conservative than she would have liked, and she ended up running from the front for a big chunk of the race, which she isn't used to. After seeing Macchia outkick her at the end, she said she knows she is going to have to work on closing races in order to find success in the postseason.

Other top individuals included Northern Burlington NJ senior Liliah Gordon in fourth, Hastings NY senior Caitlin Thomas in fifth, Green Valley Mountain VT senior Estella Laird in sixth, and Auburn NY junior Kyleen Brady in seventh.

Auburn finished third in the team scoring with 125 points, followed by Princeton NJ with 134. Liverpool NY rounded out the top five with 140 points.