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East Hampton's Laura Martinez shaved off nearly a minute from her time in leading the girls at Sunken Meadow on Friday. RON ESPOSITO
East Hampton junior Liam Knight led the boys at divisions on Friday. RON ESPOSITO
The division championships get the postseason underway for cross country, but they have varying levels of importance for each school throughout Suffolk County.
For the larger schools in divisions I and II, the top teams in each league are likely fighting for a division title, while some schools have their last chance to qualify for the Section XI Championships. Outside of that, though, it could be said that there’s no significant relevance to the meet, especially for the many small schools that attend, outside of it being another opportunity to run at Sunken Meadow State Park in Kings Park in lead up to counties.
East Hampton boys head coach Kevin Barry, who has been coaching cross country for decades, is not a particular fan of the meet, even though, in years past, he has had strong teams vie for division titles. What he would like to see the meet become is a Long Island Championship-like meet, where the top Nassau and Suffolk teams meet annually.
Currently there is no such meet for cross country, but Barry said the two sections could trade locations, with Bethpage and Sunken Meadow state parks flip-flopping as venues.
What makes divisions confusing is that there are multiple ways that teams, and even individual runners, can qualify for counties, with the criteria seemingly changing on an annual basis to boot, Barry said. All of that being said, it appears the Bonac girls qualified for the county championships by finishing sixth in the Division III team qualifier race. With her team finishing second in League VI, head coach Diane O’Donnell said she could have petitioned to get her entire team to run in the championship race, but opted to stay in the team qualifier.
Laura Martinez led the East Hampton girls after finishing in 21:37.80, which placed her ninth. Heidi Jimenez-Bustos (23:58.10), Zion Osei (24:20.70), Danette Gonzalez-Alcala (24:31.20), Briana Chavez (26:08.90) and Alessa Picco (26:48.20) all finished behind her.
O’Donnell said Martinez had one of her better races of the season. Last year, Martinez had Dylan Cashin and Ryleigh O’Donnell to follow on the course, but since they’ve graduated, Coach O’Donnell said Martinez has been hesitant to take that top spot on the team. But on Friday, Martinez really pushed herself, Coach O’Donnell said.
“She improved her time by almost a minute,” she said. “I want her to continue to push herself more. I told her she can’t hold back now. If you fall apart, you fall apart.”
As for Barry’s boys, it will be the first time in 15 years, he said, that he will not have a runner at a county championship. One of the many ways a team can qualify for counties is having a team average time of 19:30, but his team’s average was 19:37, and it did not have the placements at divisions to qualify.
Liam Knight had the top time for the boys in 19:09.70. He was followed by Jasper Samuelson (19:25.70), Benson Edman (19:46.70), Watts Comly-Bolick (19:54.50), Alistair Ramsay (20:38.70), Wyatt Smith (20:48.20), Corey Peters (20:53.10), Max Bellenoue (22:12), Augie Swain (22:24.30), Patrick Mullarkey (22:43.80) and Jaythan Pinos (27:00.30).
What bodes well for his program, Barry said, is that it’s still relatively young and that many of the runners are expected to return next season. To that point, he will have a pretty good contingent of runners compete at the Freshman/Sophomore Championships at Sunken Meadow this Friday.
