John Jay girls shine bright at cross-country invitational

Left, Sloan Wasserman led John Jay girls to the league championship and then finished second at the prestigious Eastern States Championship at the Manhattan University Invitational. Right, John Jay senior Emma Barniv helped the Wolves win a league title and finish fifth as a team in the Eastern States Championship race. Recorder file photos

By JIM MACLEAN  

It was a big week for the John Jay girls cross-country team, and as usual senior Sloan Wasserman led the way.

First, John Jay cruised to the Section 1 League G championship on Oct. 8 at Somers High, but the big day came on Saturday as the Wolves took on the country at the prestigious Manhattan University Invitational meet at Van Cortland Park in the Bronx.

It was billed as the largest cross-country meet in the country with a total of more than 7,500 collegiate and high school runners converging on the course at Van Cortland. More than 7,200 of those runners competed in high school races, and at the end of the day the second-fastest time overall amongst high school women was turned in by Wasserman as she finished the course in 14:10.2.

Wasserman and her John Jay teammates had earned the chance to compete in the biggest race of the day called the Eastern States Championship. There are several varsity races throughout the day at the Invitational broken up by classes, but only the best teams are allowed to enter the Eastern States race. John Jay earned that chance and the Wolves made the most of the opportunity to showcase just how good they can be this year. Wasserman was up against top runners from all across the country with 17 different states competing at the meet, but she proved to be up to the challenge and crossed the finish line in second place, trailing only Maeve Going of the Sacred Heart Academy on Long Island.

“It was my first race against a ton of good competition and it was great to get out there, it’s not the focus of our season, but it was definitely our biggest race yet and it went well,” Wasserman said. “Not what I was hoping for to finish second, but I made a huge improvement from last year and I feel I’m on an upward trajectory. Last year I won my Class race, but I ran 49 seconds faster this year, so that was a very big improvement and I’m happy with that.”

She wasn’t the only John Jay runner having a big day as the Wolves as a team turned in a top five performance, finishing fifth in the team standings. They were the top team from New York state, trailing only champion Padua Academy from Delaware, the Classical Academy from Connecticut in second, Cathedral Prep 10 from Pennsylvania in third, and Princeton High from New Jersey in fourth.

“Everyone is running really well, most of us trained with coach Dey all year and we’ve all seen huge improvements,” Wasserman said of her John Jay team. “We’re a well rounded team and we continue to get better each race and it’s really exciting.”

Wasserman has committed to compete in college next year at Boston College, the same school where her mother was a collegiate swimmer, but he focus is on a strong finish to her John Jay career for both herself and the team with the Section 1 championships coming up and a chance to advance to the state meet as a team.

At the Eastern States, Maya Serai was the second runner to finish for John Jay in 26th place, with senior Emma Barniv the next across the line in 42nd. Freshman Brodie Albert was next in 50th, followed by Mia Haimelin in 62nd and Ainsley Graham in 70th.

“As a team, they did pretty well,” admitted John Jay coach Dey Dey. “This year being Sloan’s last year I want her to go out on a good note. I gave Sloan a lot of work this summer to talk and train with the younger girls to build trust and help them see what they can do. We know what she can do, she’s going to score a point, but she needs help from them. I really hope to see this John Jay girls team make it to the states. They are all running well and they can do it.”

To win the league title, Wasserman finished first as the John Jay girls dominated with six runners in the top eight spots to claim the title. Serai was third, Barniv fourth, Albert sixth, Graham seventh, and Haimelin was eighth as the Wolves easily claimed the title over host Somers in second.

The John Jay boys finished second at the league meet as Rohan Patel was second overall in an exciting finish, just 0.6 seconds behind the winner Aidan Lee of Somers. Will George was fifth with Tarun Patel in sixth for the Wolves, and Matthew Ebert was ninth.

Fox Lane girls win league championship with a perfect score: Marc Desforges wins league title in boys race for Foxes

It was a big day for the Fox Lane cross country program as the Foxes competed in the Section 1 League 1 C championships at Bowdoin Park in Wappingers Oct. 7.

The girls team turned in the rare accomplishment of winning a league championship with a perfect team score of 15 as the Foxes claimed the top five spots and cruised to the title. The Ransom triplets led the way as the three sisters were all in the top five. Victoria Ransom finished first to earn the crown as individual league champ. Right behind her in second place was Natalie Desforges, followed by Alexandra Ransom in third, Daniella Perez Lopez in fourth, and Isabella Ransom in fifth place. The Foxes had seven in the top 10 as Frankie Kelly was ninth and Sky Smith was 10th.

In the boys league championship race, it was Fox Lane senior Marc Desforges claiming the individual title as he continues his strong senior season. Desforges won the race with a time of 17:32.7, and his brother Jacques was the second finisher for the Foxes in fifth place.

The Foxes had six runners earn All-League honors in the top 14 as Michael Laclavik was 10th, Oliver Beck Ley was 11th, Luke Sweeney was 13th, James MacDonald was 14th.

“Marc is having a really good year and did a nice job capturing the league title,” Fox Lane coach Chris Dossena said of Desforges. “He’s been very consistent. It was Jacques’ first race back from an injury and a good performance from him. The crew in the next level, some young kids that are developing and moving in the right direction. Laclavik had a nice breakthrough race coming in 10th.”

John Jay and Fox Lane will both compete this week on Saturday, Oct. 18, at the Section 1 coaches Invitational meet at Bowdoin Park, and the following Saturday they will both compete in the Westchester County Championships in Milton.