4 Photos
Mikey Gilbert
Brayan Rivera DREW BUDD
Dylan Cashin DREW BUDD
Ryleigh O'Donnell DREW BUDD
With much of their teams largely intact, the East Hampton boys and girls cross country teams look to improve upon last season’s finish, which was fourth and third in the county, respectively.
The boys are returning their entire team, including senior Evan Masi, who was injured for much of the shortened spring campaign, but is back healthy, according to head coach Kevin Barry. Masi is the only runner on the squad who has reached the state meet, having done so as a sophomore.
With Masi missing for much of last season, that paved the way for Brayan Rivera to lead the team on most occasions, and he’ll be returning as a sophomore, along with fellow classmates Mikey Gilbert, who led the team at counties, and Liam Fowkes. Amari Gordon is another strong runner who is returning for his senior season. It was Gordon’s performance at the division championships that pushed the Bonackers to the county meet.
Barry said filling the remaining two spots in the starting lineup shouldn’t be too difficult as the team basically doubled in size in the offseason. With Westhampton Beach entrenched as the clear favorite for the county Class B title, Barry said he’d like to see his team repeat as league champions and finish top three in the county and possibly get a few runners to the state meet.
The girls lost a pair of strong runners in Ava Enstrom and Bella Tarbet, who were five- and four-year runners, respectively, on the varsity. They helped the program win its first ever county title in 2019.
But other than that, the team returns some of its top runners from this spring, including Dylan Cashin, who placed third at counties and would have qualified for the state meet had it not been canceled due to the pandemic. Also returning is senior Emma Hren and junior Ryleigh O’Donnell.
The girls got the shot in the arm they were looking for with three new sophomores — Emma Tepan, Leah Fromm and Riley Miles — and three new freshmen — Briana Chavez, Zion Osei and Shilo McCarthy — joining the team.
“The freshmen are running strong, the sophomores are doing well,” head coach Diane O’Donnell said. “They have a lot to learn, but I think they’re going to make us as strong as we can be with missing Ava and Bella.”
