Floyd's Zariel Macchia regains 5,000-meter Class A title, Bayport-Blue Point's Sophia McInnes retains Class B crown at state cross country championships

After having the state crown stripped from her last year, Floyd senior Zariel Macchia reclaimed her rightful spot at the top of New York State’s cross country runners list.

As a sophomore in 2022, Macchia won the Class A 5,000 meter run at the New York State public schools championship meet, putting herself in a position to leave quite the legacy on the sport in the coming years. However, last year, she finished just shy of repeating, as she finished second to Saratoga Springs High School’s Emily Bush, who graduated this past spring. Without Bush in the picture, Macchia restored her distinction as New York’s undisputed best female runner on Saturday, as she ran a 17 minute, 24.7 second on the Queensbury High School course to claim her second career state title.

“It’s my senior year, so I wanted to go out with a state win, but mostly just have a good race,” Macchia said. “If someone else had the best race of their life … I wouldn’t have been upset about it. I just wanted to come out and have a good race to finish off my senior year of running cross country for my school.”

Macchia’s time was the best at the meet, as she cleared her nearest competitor by 7.7 seconds. At one point in her race, her opponent stopped being the other girls. Rather, she started racing MileSplit’s cart that carries a camera crew and follows the lead runners around to help shoot their live stream.

“I wasn’t really planning to put in a big surge [of energy], but at one point, right before the first mile, the cart slowed up because it was trying to turn,” Macchia said. “It was to the point where I could catch up to it. So I was like, ‘Well, if I could catch the cart, I may as well put in a little surge and catch it for fun.’ Then I caught up to it and I figured I may as well pass it, and that would be even better.”

Bayport-Blue Point senior Sophia McInnes followed Macchia’s win with one of her own, as she ran a 17:45.5 (fourth-best overall) to win her second consecutive New York State Class B title.

After missing three weeks while fighting COVID-19, McInnes has rallied to double all of the trophies on her shelf.

“I was a bit nervous before because I haven’t had this big of a race since before I was sick,” McInnes said. “Very nervous, but so thankful that I was able to pull out with the win again. I had a few people around me, which is definitely not usual, so I had a lot of people to push me throughout the race.”

One of those around her was Friends Academy senior Aislinn Frazer, who ran an 18:01 to claim the bronze medal (third place) in the Class B run. Harborfields sophomore Sayla Fives finished fourth with an 18:11.9.

Frazer was proud to be a part of a race that saw three Long Islanders finish within the top four.

“The running community on Long Island is awesome,” Frazer said. “It’s actually a close-knit community and everyone’s so kind. It’s fun to get to race the Suffolk girls and then come up here and show what we can do. New York State running is notorious for being fast, and it’s cool that Long Island girls get to show that we’re a part of that, too.”

Northport had the best team showing from Long Island, as it scored a cumulative 142 points in the merge to finish second overall. Only Bethlehem — the No. 1 team in the country — outperformed Northport.

“I’m extremely proud,” Northport coach Gregg Cantwell said. “Our top runner [Fiona King] was very sick, and we didn’t know that she was going to run until the morning of, and she wound up getting All-State. All in all, I feel really lucky to coach these girls.”