Though not in Yankee-Red Sox territory just yet, a fledgling local rivalry was permanently forged last Saturday in the woods of Van Cortlandt Park.

Despite a steady rain that lasted the entire morning, seven Bronx high schools gathered in the park to compete in the Bronx Borough Cross Country championships. In the end, it was two of the smaller schools, the High School of American Studies and the Bronx High School of Science, that stole the day.

These two schools have had a "back and forth" rivalry all season, according to American Studies’ head coach Morgan Elinson, now in his third season. The teams have exchanged victories at every competition this season. Most recently, the teams split the boys’ freshman/sophomore championships on Oct. 10 with American Studies capturing the freshman title and Bronx Science winning the sophomore title.

The rivalry is fed by the schools’ proximity to each other in Bedford Park and their differing sizes. Bronx Science has a student population of 2,508, while American, which opened in 2002 at Lehman College, has only 333 students. All of the coaches, including first year girls’ coach Pian Wong, said that the best part of being a coach is interacting with students outside the classroom. At American Studies, Elinson is also a U.S. history teacher. Wong teaches English.

Heading into the boys’ 5K (3.1 miles) race on Saturday morning, Elinson said he expected it to be "neck and neck" with Bronx Science and admitted he would keep his "fingers crossed" that his team could pull out victory in a race American Studies’ school newspaper headlined: "Will David beat Goliath?"

Bronx Science boys’ head coach Cesar Gracia also recognized the rivalry, saying American Studies "came out of nowhere, has a great team" and "has been really impressive this year." As for his own team, Gracia said the team doesn’t have one superstar; everyone contributes.

While American also has a very steady team, two runners have emerged at the top of the pack. For the boys, junior and first-year runner Hiroshi Nobuoka is one of the top competitors in the 5K at Van Cortlandt Park, holding a best time of 18 minutes and 30.5 seconds for the course. For the girls’ team, freshman Alana Menendez is the school’s record holder in the 5K and the fourth fastest freshman in the city.

On a track that Gracia said "has a reputation of being one of the toughest courses in the eastern part of the United States," both the boys’ and girls’ competitions proved to be as close as promised. Each team is allowed to have seven runners in the competition, but only the top five finishers count.

In the boys’ race, Nobuoka finished first overall in just under 19 minutes, followed closely by teammate and senior Mark Menendez. But Bronx Science finished their first five runners before another American runner could finish, so they captured the championship.

The race for second place was then between American Studies and DeWitt Clinton. Both teams finished with 50 points, but because American Studies’ sixth runner performed better than Clinton’s sixth runner, American took second.

In the girls’ race, Menendez finished second overall for American Studies, but the team fell just short of third place DeWitt Clinton to finish fourth. Bronx Science finished first overall. They will be joined by Harry S. Truman High School in representing the Bronx in the city championships.

Even though the boys’ team finished second on the day, their season is not over. Because American Studies finished in the top two, they and Bronx Science will represent the Bronx in the city championships at Van Cortlandt Park on Nov. 10.

Despite rainy mornings, long tracks and tough competition, players said they love competing with their friends, and they wouldn’t trade the experience for anything.

"I know that if I quit now, I’ll regret it," American Studies senior and co-captain Daniel Arcos said. "Five years from now, I’ll look back on this, and I’ll be proud of the fact I did it."