Closing Notes From the Manhattan Invitational

Manhattan HS Invitational
Cory Mull


The Manhattan Invitational has come and gone at famed Van Cortlandt Park, though not without some national storylines. 

Here are the main points to draw from another edition of New York's finest regular season meet. 

1. In case you were wondering whether Charles Hicks would be a contender for a national title this season, the Eastern States Championship at Manhattan was the race where he formed his biggest statement. Hicks went toe-to-toe with New Jersey's top runner, Pt. Pleasant Boro's Devin Hart, and finished with a No. 11th all-time effort of 12:15.2 on a difficult course at Van Cortlandt Park. Hart was the runner-up in 12:20.6, which is No. 28 performance all-time. Hicks is now coming off two straight top-end performances following his fourth-place finish at Great American last week. 

2. Christian Brothers Academy may have been the favorite to win the Eastern States Championship, but it was Bishop Hendricken (RI) that came away with a huge win. The Rhode Island program dispatched second-place Fayetteville-Manlius (NY), third-place Claremont (CA) and fourth-place CBA en route to scoring 92 points on a 12:47.22 average. Hendricken had a ridiculous effort, with two top 15 finishers, four top 25 closers and its top five all in the top 32 places. Fayetteville-Manlius scored three runners in the top 17, though its fifth came through in 43rd place. A week prior, Hendricken was third at Great American. 

3. The MileSplit50 No. 4 Claremont girls made a massive statement in the Eastern States Championship girls race, winning with 72 points over a solid outing from No. 14 Liverpool (NY), which scored 85 points. Both teams were under 100 points, though it was Claremont that had some eye-opening efforts with freshman Maddie Coles finishing sixth in 14:44.1 and junior Azalea Seguar-Mora following in seventh in 14:46.1. Senior Sydney Hwang was 12th in 14:58.5 while senior Kalina Reynolds was 17th in 15:16.4. Those four athletes achieved enough displacement for Julia Marriott, who was 30th overall in 15:35.4. Liverpool's fifth was in before Claremont's, but there was too much displacement between its third and fourth. 

4. Randolph (NJ) senior Abby Loveys has had a lot of good races thus far, but Manhattan was probably her best so far. She won the Eastern States race in 14:03.0, which is No. 8 all-time on the course. Fayetteville-Manlius' Claire Walters produced the No. 5 time in a letter race earlier in the day. In her first appearance at Manhattan, Tully (NY) sophomore Brooke Rauber was second overall in 14:15.1. 

5. Speaking of Fayetteville-Manlius' girls? They won the letter 'B' race with 35 points, using Walters' epic win as a starter. Walters became just the sixth girl all-time to break 14 minutes on the 4K course. Junior Phoebe White broke 15 minutes, finishing third overall in 14:50.60. The Hornets still need to shore up their fifth and sixth runners, but the outlook looks solid for the 11-time national champs if they can put it together. 


Other notable performances: