LI Runners Victories at Manhattan Invitational

As championship season is coming closer by the day, some of Long Island’s best cross country runners made the trip to the Historic Van Cortlandt Park in Riverdale to compete against some of the best high school runners the region had to offer at the Manhattan Invitational.

In what will most likely be the final invitational of the season for most of these athletes before they compete in the races that matter, teams from over Suffolk County spent their Saturday afternoon trying to get one last fast race in before the Division Championship later in the month.

Doug Antaky Wins the Varstiy F Race at Van Cortlandt Park File Photo

Westhampton Beach would walk out of the meet boasting two individual champions from the mee as Junior Lily Strebel – who is in her first year of competition – and Senior Trevor Hayes would claim victory in their respective races.

Strebel won the Girls Varsity A Race with a time of 15:05 for 2.5 miles – the length of the course – while Hayes finished the 2.5 mile course with a sub 13 minute performance, clocking in at 12:58.

Westhampton Beach Junior Lily Strebel Wins the Varsity A Race at Van Cortlandt Park File Photo

Smithtown Cross Country superstar Doug Antaky has proven to everyone that his hot start to the year is in-fact sustainable as he would break yet another Smithtown school record as he ran a time of 12:42 to win the Varsity F Race to beat a 17 year old school record that had been belonged to the legendary Giovanni Signoretti.

Zariel Macchia wins the Eastern State Championship at Van Cortlandt Park File Photo

Any article that discusses Long Island Cross Country would not be complete without mentioning the feats of William Floyd’s All-American long distance runner Zariel Macchia.

Macchia continued her hopes at an undefeated junior year alive on Saturday as she would obliterate the field in the most elite race of the meet, the Eastern States Championship race. She would win the race with a blistering time of 14:10 over the 2.5 mile course, finishing 18 seconds ahead of the second place runner.

Westhampton Beach’s Trevor Hayes wins the Varsity A Race at Van Cortlandt Park File Photo

This was also a big milestone for the pride of William Floyd High School as this was the first time she would win at Van Cortlandt Park. Macchia had finished second her previous three tries at the course and now has the victory that eluded her the longest.

With the end of the regular season already being here, all eyes will now be on the Section XI Division Championship Meet which will signal the beginning of championship season. The Division Championship will take place at Sunken Meadow State Park on October 24th.