3 Photos
East Hampton senior Zion Osei in the girls varsity 'B' race on Saturday. DREW BUDD
East Hampton freshman Heidi Jimenez-Bustos in the girls varsity 'B' race on Saturday. DREW BUDD
East Hampton junior Liam Knight in the boys varsity 'B' race on Saturday. DREW BUDD
After graduating eight runners from the program after last season, if someone told East Hampton girls cross country head coach Diane O’Donnell that her team was going to win, at the very least, three dual meets and place second in League VI, she’d sign up for that in a heartbeat. Which is good, because that’s exactly what her team did.
The Bonackers suffered their first dual meet loss of the season, 25-31, to Rocky Point at Sunken Meadow State Park in Kings Park on October 1, leading to that second place finish. It was a close meet, O’Donnell said, but the Eagles were able to come up with a few wins in key spots of the race to grab the win.
The regular season was a bit topsy-turvy, O’Donnell said, one that ultimately played out in favor of the Bonackers. Westhampton Beach was expected to be a favorite to win the league, but due to various circumstances, things have worked out the Hurricanes’ way. On top of that, both Amityville and Wyandanch were expected to be in the league. Wyandanch forfeited the season before it began, and Amityville wound up not showing up for the season-opening meet back on September 10 due to low numbers.
The only other competitive meet East Hampton has had was against Islip, which it won, 23-31. O’Donnell has been pleased with her team thus far.
“We only had four returners with two great freshmen additions … so this is a new team, basically,” she said. “They’re doing well for themselves and have had some really good leadership with Zion [Osei] and Briana [Chavez] as captains, and I’m very proud of the both of them. They’ve really stepped up and have done a lot of work getting the team to become a team, where everybody is on the same page with everyone else, and it’s due, in large part due, to their efforts with new girls.”
Both the East Hampton boys and girls cross country teams competed at the Tom Knipfing Invitational hosted by Shoreham-Wading River at Fireman’s Memorial Park in Ridge on Saturday. With it being a holiday weekend, the girls were missing some of their top runners. But those who ran did well, O’Donnell said.
Osei and freshman Heidi Jimenez-Bustos finished back-to-back in the girls varsity “B” race, placing 21st and 22nd, respectively. Osei finished in 23:54.26, Jimenez-Bustos in 24:05.14. Both earned medals for finishing within the top 25. Danette Gonzalez-Alcala, another freshman, put in a strong effort by finishing the 5K race in 25:19.47.
Benson Edman led the Bonac boys in their varsity 5K. The senior crossed the finish line in 18:58.17, which placed him 15th overall. Freshman Jasper Samuelson finished 23rd in 19:33.61 while junior Liam Knight finished 27th in 20:14.51.
Back on September 28, both Bonac teams competed in the Ocean State Invitational, one of the bigger regional races during the season in Rhode Island. Sophomore Laura Martinez paced the girls by placing 18th out of 252 runners in the varsity Division II race, finishing in 21:10.70. Samuelson finished 13th out of 125 runners in the boys freshman Division II race in 14:54.20.
The East Hampton boys and girls will be at the Suffolk Officials races this Friday at Sunken Meadow. It will be the first time the girls will be running the 5K there this season, O’Donnell said, so she’s excited to see how the girls fare. Now that the postseason is approaching, O’Donnell said the girls will be running 5Ks from here on out.
