The state’s returning Gatorade Player of the Year, the 5-foot-7 senior raced to the individual title at the Champs Sports National Championships this past season with a time of 16:49.2. Baloga also won the Class B individual state championship with a time of 17:49, leading the Dragons to second place as a team. She was victorious at the Manhattan Invitational, breaking the tape in 13:55.3 to clock the fifth-fastest time over 2.5 miles in the history of the Van Cortlandt Park course. Her win at the Section 9 Championship in 16:18.7 is the second-fastest ever run by a prep girl at Bear Mountain State Park. Baloga also triumphed at the Ocean State Invitational, the Burnt Hills Invitational, the Orange County Championships and the New York Federation Championships among her eight victories. She took second at the Champs Sports Northeast Regional Championships prior to winning the national title to cap her season.
Baloga has maintained an A average in the classroom. She has signed a National Letter of Intent to run on scholarship at the University of Colorado at Boulder this fall.
Selected by Dragons’ coaches to be a member of the CCHS Leadership Council, a group focused on conveying to student-athlete peers the role and responsibilities of leadership on and off the field, both in school and the community at large, Baloga is also a member of the school’s Environmental Club, contributing to a student-centered garden on campus as well as a reboot of Cornwall’s pre-pandemic recycling program. In addition, she has donated her time as part of the school’s Girls in Sport Day—a workshop that allowed girls to be introduced to new sports with the help of fellow student-athletes—and she plans to serve as a volunteer coach for the local Girls On The Run developmental program this spring.
