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East Hampton's Diego Rojas placed fifth in the 1,000-meter race. RON ESPOSITO
The East Hampton/Pierson/Bridgehampton girls indoor track team had its best performance at the League IV Championships in 18 years at Suffolk County Community College in Brentwood on Sunday.
The Bonackers scored 59 points to finish fourth in the league behind Sayville, Westhampton Beach and Islip, respectively. Head coach Yani Cuesta said it’s the most points and best placement for the team since she took over the program in 2004-2005.
“I am quite impressed with what the girls did,” she said. “Every school ahead of us was significantly larger than us. Sayville had 33 girls on their roster, WHB and Islip, 58 each. This group reminds me a lot of the squad we had back in 2015 and 2016, when we had our leagues canceled two years in a row. I always thought that group could make a huge impact like this, too.”
The girls were led by Bridgehampton’s Leslie Samuel, who won the long jump with a personal best leap of 17 feet 5 inches. She also placed third in the 300-meter dash in a personal best 44.16 seconds and placed fourth in the 55-meter dash in another personal best 7.77 seconds.
Ryleigh O’Donnell won the league title in the 600-meter run in 1:43.96, and she was also on the 4x400-meter relay that won in 4:28.50. Melina Sarlo, Meredith Spolarich and Dylan Cashin also ran on that team. Cashin replaced Samuel, who typically runs on the squad but couldn’t due to already running in the max three events. Cuesta was worried how Cashin was going to do since she had already competed in the 3,000- and 1,500-meter races, but she came through.
Cashin had placed third in the 3,000 in a season’s best 11:04.24 and finished fifth in the 1,500 in a personal best 5:15.50.
“Can I say how absolutely impressed I am with how well she ran?” she said. “Overall, these last two to three meets, Dylan has become a much different competitor and I’m absolutely floored. Can’t wait to see what else she does.”
Pierson’s Sara O’Brien also competed in both the 3,000 and 1,500. She finished just outside a scoring placement at seventh in the 3,000 in 12:03.19.
Paige Daniels (11:02.45) and Ella Abran (personal best, 11:13.40) both competed in the 1,500-meter race walk. Neither placed high enough to score, but Cuesta is excited to have a pair of walkers, going forward.
“I can’t wait to see these girls get stronger and better at these events,” she said. “Ella decided to try the race walk to accompany her good friend and softball buddy and knocked off a great deal of time from her first time where she finished with a 12:03.37. The improvements are significant and these are such young athletes. Paige finished in seventh and Ella in eighth not far off from scoring positions, so we are very excited.”
The girls will compete at the Art Mitchell Invitational back at Suffolk-Brentwood, their final chance to improve their times to try and compete at the Small Schools Championships on February 4, followed by the state qualifier on February 13.
The East Hampton/Pierson/Bridgehampton boys indoor track team competed at their League IV Championships on Saturday at Suffolk-Brentwood.
Brayan Rivera placed second in the 600-meter run in 1:28.08. Diego Rojas placed fifth in the 1,000-meter race in 2:49.30 and Benson Edman finished two placements away from scoring in the same meet, crossing the finish line in 2:57.47. The 4x400-meter relay team placed second in 3:49.02 but no information was provided as to who ran on that team for East Hampton.
