6 Photos
East Hampton's Dylan Cashin placed third in last week's 'B' race. DREW BUDD
East Hampton's Ryleigh O'Donnell heads toward the finish line. DREW BUDD
East Hampton senior Ava Engstrom finishes her cross country career at the county meet. DREW BUDD
East Hampton senior Bella Tarbet finishes the Suffolk County Class B race on Thursday, April 21. DREW BUDD
East Hampton freshman Mikey Gilbert placed 12th overall in the 'B' race. DREW BUDD
East Hampton freshman Brayan Rivera finished 14th overall in the 'B' race. DREW BUDD
The East Hampton girls cross country team fell a little short in defending its Suffolk County Class B title from 2019, finishing third behind new county champion Sayville and second place Bayport-Blue Point at the Section XI Championships at Sunken Meadow State Park on Thursday, April 22.
Much like the Bonackers did a year and a half ago, Sayville didn’t place one runner in the race’s top five, and instead won by grouping, or packing together its finishes and limiting the number of points it accrued. Mullane Baumiller was the first Sayville runner to cross the finish line in 16:17.15, which placed her sixth.
Dylan Cashin placed third in the ‘B’ race in 15:57.62, which placed her 10th overall in the county, earning herself All-County honors. Ava Engstrom (17:10.60) and Emma Hren (17:14.48) finished 17th and 18th, respectively, followed by Ryleigh O’Donnell (18:13.33) and Bella Tarbet (18:23.09).
Sayville finished with 46 points, Bayport with 61 and East Hampton with 65.
“Sayville, in retrospect, was just too strong for us, but you always have to hope that you can do it again,” East Hampton head coach Diane O’Donnell said. “Everybody ran as expected. Nobody was crushed by the outcome, which made me very happy. We did what we could, we just fell a little short, and that’s okay.”
Engstrom and Tarbet will both be graduating for the Bonackers this June and, although the team has a solid core returning in Cashin, Hren and O’Donnell, along with a few younger runners coming up next season, Coach O’Donnell said she and her returning runners will be doing some heavy recruiting so the team isn’t relying on the bare minimum of five runners, like it did this past season.
Seeded fifth, the East Hampton boys cross country improved one placement to finish fourth at its Suffolk County Class B Championship race, which was April 21 at Sunken Meadow.
In a bright moment for the program, the Bonackers were led by their up-and-coming freshmen last week. Freshman Mikey Gilbert, who missed the Division III race the week prior, was the top placewinner at counties, finishing 12th overall in 14:26.42. Brayan Rivera, another freshman, finished 14th in 14:43.68, while junior Amari Gordon crossed the finish line in 15:07.75, which placed him 22nd. Freshman Liam Fowkes (15:48.26), senior Manny Vilar (16:03.85) and junior Colin Schaefer (16:09.53) all followed.
East Hampton head coach Kevin Barry was encouraged by how well his young group did at the county level, especially since it was without its lone returning All-State runner, Evan Masi, for most of the season.
“With that core of freshmen, and our core of junior runners getting healthy, and getting back to a regular routine of training, this fall looks very promising,” he said.
