* Karrie Baloga celebrates after her performance at the Manhattan College Cross Country Invitational
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THE BRONX, NY -- The Manhattan College Cross Country Invitational lived up to the billing on Saturday as thousands of athletes and hundreds of teams came from different parts of the country to compete at the historic Van Cortlandt Park.
The Eastern States Championship races stole the show.
The most anticipated race of the day contained a handful of New York's top-rated girls. However, Cornwall (NY) High School senior Karrie Baloga, a University of Colorado commit, completely dominated the competition.
The defending champion ignored all distractions and snagged a blazing time of 13:55.30 for 4,000 meters to win the title.
"There's really no pressure, I love it and I enjoy it so much," Baloga said. "The pressure is to be happy for myself and to do it for myself, and for my family. I just work as hard as I can and it really doesn't give me that much pressure."
Baloga executed the No. 6 all-time performance at Manhattan and became the eighth high school girl to dip under 14 minutes on the VCP course.
Zariel Macchia, the sophomore from William Floyd (NY), finished as the runner-up with a 14:24.20 performance.
Kate Putman, who's been Cicero-North Syracuse's No. 1, finished five seconds behind Macchia with a best of 14:29.50.
When it came to the Eastern States Championship team title, Assumption (KY) earned the title with 116 points over Bethlehem Central's (NY) 130 and Haddonfield Memorial's (NJ) 161.
* Karrie Baloga reflects on her performance at the Manhattan College XC Invitational
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Leading into the boys race, Devan Kipyego of St. Raphael Academy (RI) had his eyes set on breaking Edward Cheserek's meet record of 11:55.
But the St. Raphael Academy senior was just shy of making history as he ran a time of 12:14.40 to set a new personal best at the 4K distance. His time penciled him at No. 10 all-time in meet history.
The senior was coming off a record-breaking performance at Ocean State XC Invitational, where he clocked a 14:57 for 5K.
Centennial's (MD) Antonio Camacho-Bucks finished three seconds behind Kipyego with a time of 12:17.40. Nathan Lopez of St. John's Prep (MA) was third in 12:18.40.
Christian Brothers Academy (NJ) completely dominated the team competition, scoring all five runners in the top 24. Nicholas Sullivan finished eighth to lead the Colts to victory.
It was a close race to second, but New York teams snagged the next two team finishes: Corning (NY) was second with 159 points while Saint Anthony's (NY) was third with 179, respectively.
Photo Credit: Olivia Ekpone / MileSplit
Related Links:
Manhattan Invitational Results
Manhattan Invitational Interviews