The Saint James School cross-country team, a small parochial school from Basking Ridge, went head-to-head with some of the biggest and most storied running programs in the country—and made history. The school became the first middle school from New Jersey to crack the top five at the Middle School National XC Championships.
In recent years, Saint James has earned local recognition for its league, county and state victories, but the program had never competed beyond regional races. Its only exposure to out-of-state competition had come at the Cherokee Challenge and the Wild Safari Invitational, both of which attract teams from nearby Mid-Atlantic states.
The Middle School XC Nationals are held annually at the legendary Tom Sawyer Course in Louisville, drawing athletes from across the nation, including running havens like Colorado, California and Florida. The meet routinely produces the fastest middle school times of the year. In 2025, more than 1,100 athletes from 30 states were registered to compete.
Saint James entered Nationals coming off a dominant State Championship meet, where the boys scored a near-perfect 19 points (15 is a perfect score), and the girls placed four runners in the top seven despite being short-handed. But Nationals presented new challenges: a longer 4,000-meter course—nearly 1,200 meters longer than their typical races—and fields stacked with runners from much larger schools.
An analysis of the top 10 teams showed that the average middle school enrollment, not including Saint James, was approximately 1,000 students. Saint James enrolls around 100.
But size never fazes them. “We line up who we have against who they have,” Coach Wizeman says. “We can’t think about injuries or the size of other schools. In the end, you run against the athletes in your race—it doesn’t matter where they’re from.”
Girls Race: A Top-5 National Finish
After a chaotic start—the whistle sounded before the starting gun, forcing a full restart—the girls varsity 4K went off at 9:30 a.m. Nearly 300 athletes surged toward the first turn in an aggressive, high school–level pace.
Baylynn Berndik of Ohio won the race, followed by Maryland’s Emma Pham and Colorado’s Lylah Keller.
The top 25 finishers earn medals and All-American honors. The toughest spot of all—26th, the first position outside the medals—went to Saint James’ Claire Johnson, who missed All-American status by just one second.
“I had to hold back my own emotions,” Wizeman says. “Claire has worked so hard since July. Finishing 26th at Nationals is an incredible accomplishment, but this one felt especially tough. Still, I could not be more proud. She picked off at least five athletes in the final 200 meters. An amazing, gutty performance.”
Two more Saint James runners cracked the top 100:
Livy Battista, 57th
Julia Daus, 94th
Avery Pfistner (114th) and Emiliana Galeone (144th) also finished in the top half of the race.
To put the field’s depth in perspective: This same group of Saint James girls swept the Met-Pat League Championships, all placed in the top seven at the Greater Morris County Meet, and—except for Galeone, who was injured—all were top seven at States.
With all five varsity runners finishing in the top half, Saint James secured fifth place overall—earning a top-five national ranking and standing as the only Northeast school in the top 10.
Boys Race: A Top-10 Finish
The boys’ race also went out at a blistering pace, with early splits on record-setting trajectory. It was Ohio’s Oliver Scott who led from gun to tape, followed by Emerson Redcay of Virginia and Thomas Kline of Kentucky.
Saint James’ state-champion trio—Kaden Pye, Liam Johnson and Johnny Roberts—ran tightly together and all cracked the top 100. They were joined by CJ Hummel and Filip Sasko, who finished side by side just as they had at the State Championships. Tommy Malloy and Bentley Heinze rounded out the team’s seven.
Their performance earned Saint James a seventh-place national finish.
A Season of Dominance
Saint James ends its 2025 season with six more championship titles added to its banner. The team also posted major wins at early-season invitationals. At the Cherokee Challenge, both the boys and girls took first place. At the Wild Safari Invitational, the girls were runners-up and the boys captured their first title.
Saint James now boasts back-to-back county championships, five straight league titles and three consecutive Catholic School State Championships.