Thursday, October 1, 2026
The MacArthur girls’ cross-country team enjoyed a perfect season that included some record-breaking performances, while the boys team continued to improve by leaps and bounds.
The girls’ team went undefeated to capture the Conference 2 and Division 2A championships and the boys’ 11 wins were good enough for second as both groups continued to ascend under first-year coach and former longtime assistant Matt Bocksel. The girls’ 13 victories were six better than last season and nine more than the fall of 2022, and the boys total was a stark difference from their 3-11 campaign last year after going winless the season before.
“They ran for each other,” Bocksel said of the girls’ team. “We had a couple of close races early in the season. We beat Calhoun, they were the defending conference champions, in our first race. It was a close one, but they just said, ‘No one is beating us.’ They wanted to prove that they were the best team.”
Sophomore Gemma Budek had record-setting performances leading up to her fourth-place finish at the Nov. 2 county championships. Her 15 minute, 40.3 second time in the 4,000-meter race at Bethpage on Oct. 16 broke the previous school record by over 40 seconds and then bested the school’s 5K all-time mark the following week by crossing the finish line seven seconds better in 18:55.6.
“She’s getting bonkers good,” Bocksel said. “Other coaches started texting me asking, ‘What’s going on with this girl?’ She’s just getting good.”
Freshman Isabella Reda also earned All-County status with a time of 20:41.4 at the county championships. She won the 5K event at the fifth league meet on Oct. 8, a week after setting a personal best time of 20:13.5 while finishing third at Eisenhower Park.
Senior Angelina Widmer posted a 5K personal-record time of 19:02.6 while winning the fourth league meet on Oct. 1 after opening the season with three straight runner-up finishes, but she missed the county championships due to injury. She was named All-Conference along with senior Summer Sayaves, junior Caitlin Kilian, and sophomores Niamh Cromie, Nicole Sofronis and Leah Fortunato.
Junior All-County runner Ethan Baloyo was the most consistent performer on the boys’ team with three victories and two third-place showings, including a personal-record 16:26.9 in the 5K race at Eisenhower Park on Oct. 23. He finished 13th in the county championships the following week as the boys’ team placed eighth.
“When you show up for two-and-a-half months, six days a week and you’re running 50 miles a week, you’re going to get better,” Bocksel said. “And Ethan saw that jump last fall where he became All-Conference. That consistency that Ethan showed over the summer is what had to his little breakout.”
Sophomore Elias Baloyo has a lot of Ethan’s traits and translated that into an All-Conference season that featured three top 10 finishes. He set a personal-record time of 17:46.5 in the 5K race at Eisenhower on Oct. 23.
Sophomore Logan Rodriguez started the season with five top five finishes and also became an All-Conference runner with juniors Jackson Smith and Jack Ruocchio.
