The Cross Country team at John Jay High School has been phenomenal this year, and continues to keep getting better. Although the season has not ended yet, the races run thus far have been astonishing. Performances coming from arguably their best senior this season, Jack Buckley, and a few new faces have helped to propel the team into second place in Section 1 Class B. All data regarding personal bests and team standards have been gathered from MileSplitNY or MileSplitCT.

As of November 1, John Jay Cross River is ranked 3rd for our girls team and 10th for our boys team in New York State. The girls team does not have any seniors while the boys team has five.

Their varsity Girls team is, in order of increasing personal best this year, Pippa Nuttall (18:31.40), Lauren Pollak (18:33.10), Morgan Johnson (18:51.00), Kelsey Crawford (18:59.40), Cameron Crawford (18:59.40), Clodagh McGroary (19:51.60), and Libby Gressin (20:09.60).

Their varsity boys team is, in order of increasing personal best this year, Jack Buckley (15:50.50), Cole Rooney (15:59.90), Brendan Carroll (16:38.50), Ed Soriano (16:41.00), Zach Kells (17:05.90), Kevin McMahon (17:08.80), and Alexander Kuehl (17:11.50).

Both the boys and girls teams still have races to run, so these times may get even faster.

The “Warwick Valley Big Purple X-C Wave Mania” meet was the first of the year for John Jay. The team started off fantastically, as the boys varsity and boys junior varsity placed 1st in their respective races. Girls varsity placed 1st as well.

The Wilton Invitational was the second meet John Jay attended, boasting twenty nine high schools. Their boys varsity team placed 4th and their girls varsity team placed 2nd. The John Jay junior varsity team placed 3rd in their races and the girls  junior varsity runners placed 4th.

The following meet was the “Crusader XC Classic” meet, hosted by Monroe-Woodbury High School. The hills on this course are brutal and have been described as the ‘triple entente’ by some. John Jay’s boys varsity team placed 3rd while their junior varsity team placed 1st. Their girls varsity team placed 2nd.

The Brewster Bear meet has always been a fan favorite, partly because it is one of the few meets that is close to John Jay. The meet featured a large number of runners per race. This is the result of combining the varsity and junior varsity teams. John Jay’s boys team placed 4th and their girls team placed 1st.

The Section 1 League Championship meet, also known as leagues, was hosted at Bowdoin Park in Wappingers Falls. Bowdoin is known for its massive hill. An article published by Nancy Haggerty highlights this by commenting on how “…Bowdoin requires runners to be part mountain goat to succeed.” Nevertheless, John Jay’s team ran spectacularly. The girls and boys varsity teams both placed 1st in their league.

The following meet, the Section 1 Coaches Invitational, was also at Bowdoin Park. John Jay’s boys varsity and junior varsity teams both came in 2nd place. Their girls varsity and  junior varsity teams both came in 1st.

The most recent meet was the Westchester County Championships, held at Croton Point Park on the Hudson River. John Jay absolutely swept away the competition. John Jay came in 1st for every race they had runners in excluding the freshman boys 1.5 mile race in which they placed 5th. John Jay won gold in the girls varsity and junior varsity races, the boys varsity as well as both boys junior races that had John Jay runners. Tom Nohilly, John Jay’s head coach, talked to the team after their tremendous races. He said how dedicated the team has been as a whole since the beginning of the season in August and how that has led the team to this moment. Nohilly also said that this was the first time that he could definitively say that the boys team were able to win the County Championship.

Their next meet will be Section 1 Championship at Bowdoin Park on November 4th. John Jay will be running against tough competition from teams like Somers, Ursuline School, Fox Lane, and many others.

Now the question is, will John Jay continue their success? Will the girls team win states as they did in 2015? Will the boys team do so as well? While it is impossible to know what the future will hold, the John Jay cross country team has a promising future ahead of it.