Fox Lane's Desforges has personal-best time at Suffern Invitational

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SUFFERN — If all goes well, next year at this time Fox Lane's Marc Desforges will be running for a collegiate team.

Friday night's 41-school, 1,700-athlete Suffern Invitational indoor track and field meet was, essentially, another audition for that.

Desforges, a triplet, whose siblings, Jacques and Natalie, also run for the Foxes, cut his personal-best 1,600-meter time to 4:31.58 in winning the Suffern boys 1,600 by a comfortable five-plus seconds.

Earlier this month, Desforges also set personal-best marks at 3,200 meters and at two miles.

But Friday's race was significant because it was held in the Rockland Community College field house. Its track is far from traditional. It's essentially an oval painted on an old, rubberized flat surface. Track cleats are not allowed, so everyone competes in sneakers.

Another words, conditions were hardly ideal for setting records, personal or otherwise.

But Desforges did just that and without being pushed, meaning he can probably do a lot better, which is his plan.

He's hoping to lower his 1,600 and mile time to under 4:25 and two-mile time to under 9:30 this winter.

Doing that might get Desforges recruited. Right now, having been accepted so far at Binghamton, Fordham, Purdue and Indiana, he's thinking of trying to simply walk on.

"I've had my most significant times this year," he said, noting most athletes draw the attention of college coaches by some time in their junior year.

But his progression may start sparking interest. In the fall, he qualified for the state public school cross-country championships and his performance there qualified him for the state Federation championship, facing top athletes from all sizes of public and private schools.

He was 33rd out of 290 boys in that race, which is something he probably couldn't have envisioned little more than two years ago. Hating the pain of running long distance, he signed up electronically for track before his sophomore year, not noticing that the cross-country box was also checked.

"Running a long time fast hurt a lot," he recalled of his aversion to both cross-country and running the longer distances on the track he now favors.

"The coach was surprised to see me (at the first cross-country practice), but I said, "If you let me be here, I'll give you 100%."

That's a promise he has kept both in cross-country and on the track.

"I'm just continuing to push the needle forward and riding my times as they come down," he said, chalking up his improvement to getting stronger, more consistent training and growing confidence.

"I've had a jump in my physical strength and mentality," said Desforges.

Grinning, he also noted he's following Horace Greeley star Ryan Sykes' dietary advice — at least to some extent.

"I've started eating greens. ... I'm eating my veggies — a salad or two," he said.

Fox Lane's Marc Desforges leads the pack in the boys 1,600-meter race at the Suffern Invitational Jan. 16, 2026 at Rockland Community College. The senior won in a personal-best time.

Iona Prep with multiple wins

While personal bests are rare at RCC, they're not totally unheard of.

Iona Prep triple jumper Michael Fitzpatrick increased his personal record in the event by just under a foot to 44-1 to gain the win at Suffern.

Teammate Marco Matesic, who was second in the boys long jump, triple jumped a personal-best 42-4 to also finish second in that.

"It's good to have intersquad competition," Fitzpatrick said, explaining he and Matesic look up to each other and push each other to get better.

RCC's lower pits, which are under the floor, are seen as an advantage, affording a small bit of extra hang time. But Fitzpatrick said that plus is offset by the running surface, since, without being able to wear spikes, the grip on takeoff is not as good.

Still, he hit the board better than in any previous competition, which, he said, was key to him setting a personal record.

"I didn't know how far (that jump was) but I definitely knew it was a PR, for sure," he said. "That was my first time running off the board that I used speed and didn't lose momentum."

The junior, jokingly nicknamed FitzMoney by Iona Prep assistant coach Dom Zanot for always coming through, thinks he can hit 46 feet before winter season ends.

"Once I execute and do things right, big numbers are coming," Fitzpatrick said.

He wasn't the only Gael to win gold.

Iona Prep's 4x100 team of Mason Materia, Aaron Irish Bramble, Jamel Cobbs and Jayden Jackson ran 1:34.62 for first with Suffern clocking 1:36 flat for second.

Iona Prep's Joakeem Stewart also won the boys 55 hurdles in 8.33 with Pearl River's Liam Lee (8.53) second.

Notable performance

Sleepy Hollow's Brayden Richardson went 23-6 to win the boys long jump. That wasn't only a personal best but is the current No. 2 in the state among high school boys