William Floyd track star Zariel Macchia wins appeal, can run in Saturday's state championships
William Floyd High School track star Zariel Macchia was cleared to run in the indoor state championships after winning an appeal on Thursday of a ruling that declared her ineligible for the rest of the indoor season.
Macchia filed a lawsuit in Suffolk County Supreme Court on Tuesday challenging the New York State Public High School Athletic Association decision on Feb. 18 that said she was ineligible after competing against college athletes in a race last month.
Macchia, 18, is one of the most decorated runners in Long Island history. She qualified in two state championship events — the 1,000 and 3,000 meters — and will be looking to add to her total of six state championships when she competes on Saturday on Staten Island.
“I definitely do feel relief,” Macchia said. “This has been a pretty long process and we’ve put in a lot of time and money and effort to get to this point. I’m really excited that I’m going to be able to run on Saturday.”
WHAT NEWSDAY FOUND
- Floyd's Zariel Macchia will be able to compete in Saturday's indoor track state championships after winning an appeal in court that challenged a NYSPHSAA ruling that declared her ineligible. Macchia qualified for two events — the 1,000 and the 3,000-meter races.
- Macchia violated a NYSPHSAA rule that does not allow high school runners to compete against college runners in-season unless the college runners are running unaffiliated. The judge ruled that Macchia did not know she was violating the rule and that being ineligible would cause her irreparable harm because of NIL opportunities.
- This is the third case in the past month where a NYSPHSAA decision was overturned in court.
Judge Christopher Modelewski handed down the decision in a special court proceeding at the Riverhead courthouse Thursday afternoon.
“I am allowing her to run on Saturday,” Modelewski said from the bench. The judge said that, based on the testimony, Macchia did not have knowledge of the rule she violated, adding there was “no question” the suspension would cause Macchia irreparable harm because of the NIL opportunities she could receive in college. Macchia, a senior, is committed to run for Brigham Young University in Utah.
The rule Macchia violated is called the “College Rule” in the NYSPHSAA handbook. It states that NYSPHSAA athletes are not allowed to “participate in practice or competition with or against any individual or team representing a college” at any time during a sport’s season. Macchia would not have violated the rule if her opponents had run unaffiliated.
She participated in the Boston University David Hemery Valentine Invitational on Feb. 15, finishing third in the 1,000.
“I’m a big fan of rules,” Macchia’s lawyer, Cynthia Augello, said. “It’s the way that rules are followed, the ways they are enforced and everything else that has to be done fairly and equally. Here, if people don’t know about the rules and they’re not informed of what they mean and what they are, how are they expected to follow them?”
Tom Combs, the executive director of Suffolk County’s governing body of interscholastic sports, testified at the hearing and said he was disappointed in the judge’s decision.
“We felt we had a good case,” Combs said. “Our job is to enforce the rules of NYPHSAA. The judge felt differently. We wish Zariel all the best on Saturday in the state championships. And hopefully she brings home a state title.”
Peter Macchia, Zariel’s father, said the appeal will cost about $8,000 in legal fees and that the family set up a GoFundMe page to help with the costs.
“It is a large cost and definitely a big financial burden that my family was not expecting to have to deal with,” Zariel Macchia said.
This is the third time in the past month that Long Island athletes have had a NYSPHSAA decision overturned in court.
Six Northport High School wrestlers won an appeal on Feb. 7 to participate in their league’s postseason tournament after being ruled ineligible for competing in too many matches this season. Three of the six wrestlers advanced to the county tournament. The Northport wrestlers said their families raised $8,500 via a GoFundMe page to help with legal expenses.
Commack High School girls basketball player Sofia Vasselman was cleared to play in her team’s playoff game last week after she received a one-game suspension for being ejected from a game for committing two intentional fouls. Commack lost the playoff game to Huntington, 42-38, on Feb. 27.
For Macchia, the decision gives her an opportunity to add more titles to an already impressive high school career.
“I was really happy and relieved that it worked out the way it did,” she said. “It’s kind of crazy that it had to get to this point, that we had to be in court and file a petition to be able to be in the state meet. But I’m really glad that the judge ruled and that this was the fairest way to go about it.”
