North Rockland boys make history, winning 6th straight county XC title

Nairavoice | Oct 28, 2026 1h ago 130 0 5 min read

North Rockland boys make history, winning 6th straight county XC title

MAHWAH, New Jersey – Some New York cross-country history was created Wednesday — even though New York was several miles away.

North Rockland won its sixth straight boys team title at the Rockland County cross-country championships, the longest streak in the 121-year history of the race.

This year and last the county championships have been held at Darlington Park in Mahwah, about four miles from Rockland County due to construction at the races’ traditional home, Bear Mountain State Park.

Clearly North Rockland, which now has its sights set on winning the Section 1 Class A boys team title to qualify for the state championships, hasn’t let a venue change slow it down.

The Red Raiders took the team title with all eight Rockland teams scoring by having at least five runners finish. North Rockland beat runner-up Nanuet by 18 points.

It placed four runners in the top eight of the 59-finisher race with Red Raiders junior Cooper Cataldi edging teammate James McCarron, a senior, by just .8 of a second in a sprint to the finish.

Cataldi clocked 15:33.2 and McCarron 15:34 over the roughly three-mile course that, due to a work project, was slightly shorter than last year’s course.

That probably means the bragging rights both boys joked about having over former teammate and current Georgetown runner Claudel Chery, last year’s winner, won’t hold up. (Chery had run 15:39.9 over the longer course.)

Still, the two had enough reason for a general brag, navigating a course that may only have one main hill but is unique since it also includes a sandy beach — not the easiest surface on which to run.

“Obviously, you know, we came into this knowing we had won the past five years in a row and we could make history with this race today, so we wanted to get a nice pack going as well as we could,” McCarron said. “I knew if me and him stayed in the front, eventually the rest of the pack would die down and we’d be able to keep going for that last mile, just working off each other. So, it’s really just a trust and a teamwork we have with each other through practice and knowing each other for these, what, seven years, eight years.”

Cataldi, who said he felt like he was “swimming sometimes,” running in the sand, said he and McCarron were able to put space between themselves and other lead runners about two-and-a-half miles into then “just kept it going.”

While he would have liked to have won the individual title, McCarron smiled, taking satisfaction in the fact his teammate had.

“I’m not even mad about it,” he said.

Nyack’s Delaney girls champ, but Pearl River edges Nyack for girls team title

Hannah Delaney hadn’t been feeling right of late. She dropped out of the Manhattan University Invitational having tweaked something in her leg and then, because of that, skipped the huge Section 1 Coaches Invitational at Bowdoin Park.

But she wasn’t about to skip the Rockland County championships — not after feeling a lot better and not after having finished second last year.

So, Delaney towed the starting line, then ran 18:19.2 to beat runner-up Katie Ahern of Pearl River by 20.4 seconds in a 51-runner field.

“I was feeling as ready as I could be but there’s always in the back of my mind, ‘Oh, no. What if something happens again?’ But I think I just tried to come in as confident as possible because that’s really the key. I didn’t want to be nervous,” Delaney said.

Noting she’d finished second not just at the county cross-country meet but also in county track, Delaney, who’s hoping to qualify to return to the state championships and improve on last year’s 10th-place finish there, said of the win, “This means so much. … It feels really nice to finally be at the top of that list.”

Ahern didn’t win the girls individual title, but her performance certainly helped Pearl River repeat as girls team champion, if just barely.

With seven of eight Rockland schools scoring by having at least five runners finish, the Pirates edged Nyack by just four points.

Ahern noted while on the course, she heard Pearl River coaches yelling about a point difference.

“I told myself, ‘You can’t do it for yourself. You have to do it for the team,’ ” she said of being driven by their words.

Noting her team is young, she said, “I’m just so happy to have another season with these girls.”

But Ahern is also focusing on this season.

“Our goal is to make it to states. I really think we can do it,” she said.