Panisse Blazes At VCP

Alexis Panisse sure surprised some folks.

As Public School Athletic League officials were just finishing up with the awards ceremony for the boys' city championship race near the finish line at Van Cortlandt Park, Dwayne Barrett had to leap back into race coverage mode.

"Here comes Alexis Panisse," he boomed into the microphone as the awardees were still on the platform.

And, indeed, the Benjamin N. Cardozo High star barreled through the final straightaway to claim the girls' 3.1-mile PSAL Championship in 18:39, a time that now stands third in PSAL history behind only the famed Lynch sisters of Hunter College more than two decades ago.

In fact, Panisse had more than a minute to rest before the next runner, Susan Wagner's Christina Melian, crossed the line followed closely by Panisse's Cardozo teammate Sabrina Southerland.

But the tag team of Panisse and Southerland wasn't enough to give their team the victory as Cardozo was third behind the Staten Islanders from Curtis and Port Richmond. Curtis gained 24 points on the fourth-finisher spot to take the narrow team title, 111-115.

On the boys' side, it looked like Stuyvesant might sweep to another PSAL title as teammates Konrad Surkont and Jack Stevenson went 1-2 and teammate Mark Schramm was fifth. But Bronx Science went 3-4, with Pier Berkmans and Adam Yohanan, and then had a much stronger back end to pull off the 54-70 team victory. Midwood, with 112 points, was a distant third.

There were also PSAL individual championships for athletes whose team didn't qualify for the Championships. Those winners were Jamil Ferguson of Cardozo for the boys and Oluwatoni Esinsinade of Erasmus Hall for the girls.

The PSALs weren't the only championships at Vanny on a perfect Saturday as St. Anthony's swept the team titles at the CHSAA City Championships. The boys had a tough battle, beating Monsignor Farrell, 46-58, with Chaminade not far behind with 77. Farrell's Dan Galford was the winner of the 2.5-mile trek in 12:46.27, 10 seconds ahead of Chaminade's Thomas Awad.

The margin on the girls' side was much greater as St. Anthony's went 1-2 and placed all five scorers among the top 12 for a 32-78 victory over St. John Villa Academy. The 1-2 punch for St. A's came from Victoria Ciotti (15:38.77) and Kerri-Anne Flynn (15:46.68).

Also on the docket at Van Cortlandt were the New York State Association of Independent Schools Championship. The expected boys' winner, the Collegiate School, did just that, scoring a mere 23 points compared to Trinity's second-place total of 98. For Collegiate, senior captain William McDuffie took the title, edging freshman teammate Marco Pompilj at the tape.

The girls' NYSAIS chase had a similar 1-2 finish leading to an easy win as the Brearley School was the victor. Junior Kaitlin Hanss was the winner while senior teammate Anna-Sophie Harling was just six seconds back. Nightingale-Bamford was the runner up.