King Ches Is Back

Van Cortlandt Park was home to the New York City Mayor's Cup — the Best in the City — this weekend and next weekend the top runner in the nation will make his season debut on the same course.

Monsignor Farrell's Dan Galford repeated as the individual champion of the Mayor's Cup, covering the 2.5-mile course in 12:50.69 — about nine seconds ahead of Stuyvesant's Jack Stevenson. Collegiate's Ty Buckley took third as his squad won the team title by six points over Galford's Farrell team.

"Overall we ran a strong race," Farrell Coach Mike Proffitt told Jason Paderon of the Staten Island Advance. "Most of our guys ran personal records. Collegiate is no joke. They are a top team in the state and they're not a team you could afford to make mistakes against."

On the women's side, St. John Villa won for the third straight time while Benjamin Cardozo's Denise Branch was the individual champion. Staten Island truly dominated with Villa's championship followed by Port Richmond, McKee/S.I. Tech, Curtis and Susan Wagner.

But the big news of the weekend may be the story broken by the Star-Ledger's Jim Lambert, who reported that Edward Cheserek of St. Benedict's Prep will run at next Saturday's Manhattan Invitational at Vanny. The 2011 Foot Locker national cross-country champion has been focused on preparing for the SAT, which he took this weekend.

Cheserek holds the Van Cortlandt record of 11:55.4.