East Hampton's Moore Wins County Title in Shot Put, Helps Girls Finish Third

East Hampton junior Kaili Moore said she had no plans to compete in track and field in school, but after doing a unit of it in gym class one day, the teacher called up the middle school track coach and told her she needed to start throwing, as soon as possible.

The rest, as they say, is history.

Now in her fourth year throwing the shot put and discus, “K.K.” as she’s known to friends and family, won her first-ever county title in the shot put at the Section XI 3A Championships at Kings Park High School on Friday. Her throw of 32 feet 8 inches was just an inch farther than classmate Leah McCarron, who also earned All-County honors by placing second.

“Winning the title makes me feel proud of my accomplishments,” she said. “Ever since I started throwing for the high school track team and watching the older girls win these titles, it pushed me to want to get one of my own.”

Moore and McCarron continued their success in the discus, in which it was McCarron who took the lead, finishing second with a personal best throw of 98 feet 10 inches to earn All-County honors as well. Moore placed fourth, just missing All-County honors, with a season’s best 93-foot-3-inch throw.

Moore and McCarron’s performances were some of the many highlights of the meet for the East Hampton/Pierson/Bridgehampton girls track team, which placed third with 90 points. It’s the best showing under the tenure of longtime head coach Yani Cuesta.

“It truly was a very exciting meet to be a part of especially because there were times when we were in first place on the leaderboard,” she said. “Some coaches were coming up to [assistant coach Nick DeLuca] and I telling us that so many people discounted us but that we shouldn’t be ignored. Inspiring words to live up to — we always want to surprise, be the dark horse that no one thought about.”

“The track program is beyond what anyone could think,” Moore added. “The teamwork and the coaches put together makes the team feel as a big family. I can say that from starting my freshman year to now, the team has grown immensely. We have all pushed ourselves for the growth of ourselves but also for the team.”

Cuesta said that McCarron’s performance in the discus was commendable given the circumstances. They all knew that with McCarron competing in both the discus and long jump, which were set to start 15 minutes from each other, she wasn’t going to have much time to do both. The throwing area was also a significant distance away from the jumping pits.

Still, McCarron ran between both events, and when news broke that she had made the finals of the discus, she had to sprint back to that area from the long jump.

“I guess she was as warmed up as she needed to be because her first throw was her best one and a personal best for her,” Cuesta said. “While she was throwing, I got a message from DeLuca saying Leah had made the finals in the long jump and they needed her to jump. At that moment, she was about to throw her second time — in finals an athlete cannot compete out of order — and was in second place with five other throwers still to do their throws.

“I told DeLuca to pass her first long jump attempt,” she continued. “As soon as Leah finished her third and final discus throw, I told her the news and had her race back to the long jump where she told DeLuca she was tired. But he pointed out that it was a mindset. She was not really tired, but finally properly warmed up. And she had her winning jump, another personal best.”

McCarron finished sixth in the long jump with a leap of 16 feet 4 ½ inches.

Pierson senior Greylynn Guyer placed second in the 2,000-meter steeplechase, in which she improved upon her already school record time in 7:28.16, dropping her time by over five seconds. Cuesta said it was great to see Guyer keep up with Comsewogue sophomore Lexie Cole.

“I hope she realizes how strong she really is,” she said. “So many of the girls look at Lexie as this stand-alone athlete they can’t beat, but Greylynn should realize that her hard work is getting her closer each and every time she runs.”

East Hampton sophomore C.J. Echavarria placed second in the 100-meter high hurdles in 16.79 seconds. Pierson junior Sara O’Brien placed second in the 400-meter intermediate hurdles in 68.08 seconds. And the girls 4x400-meter relay team of O’Brien, Alex Kolhoff, Josie Mott and Laura Martinez finished second in 4:15.16.

Kolhoff was one of two Bonac girls who just missed placing in the top three in their respective events to earn additional All-County honors. She finished fourth in both the high jump (4 feet 10 inches) and long jump (16 feet 9 ¾ inches). East Hampton junior Vicky Chen finished fourth in the pole vault after reaching 8 feet 6 inches.

“Eric Malecki and Nick DeLuca have worked so hard preparing the girls for this meet and many of the girls showed up to give their all, and delivered,” Cuesta said. “Nick has also been doing a phenomenal job with the team strategy this season. He’s maximizing our team’s potential at every meet and yesterday it was paramount — our best finish. His mathematical brain works so quickly to make some last-minute adjustments to our lineup as needed and it’s worked.”

Cuesta said DeLuca often predicts how a meet is going to turn out and it’s fun to see how close he gets.

“Looking at his predictions for counties and seeing the final standings, it’s incredible how spot on he was — just a few differences in points and a few switches in team orders near the lower half of the list, but quite good.”

Many of the girls who earned All-County honors, though not automatically in, should have a good shot at advancing to the state qualifier, which is this Thursday and Friday at Comsewogue High School. Even those girls who just missed being All-County could make it to the meet that is expected to start at 3 p.m. both days.

Boys Have Good Presence

At Counties

Although none of the Bonac boys were able to earn All-County honors, many of them were competing at counties for the first time. Head coach Sean Knight is excited about the future of the program going forward.

The top placement came from East Hampton sophomore Franco Palombino in the shot put, who finished fifth with a throw of 41 feet 4 inches. Pierson senior Edmar Gonzalez-Nateras finished seventh in the 800-meter race in 2:04.54. East Hampton sophomore Marcus Oransky also finished seventh in the 400-meter hurdles in 1:04.95.

Gonzalez-Nateras, Liam Knight, Sean Perez and Xavier Johnson finished fifth in the 4x400-meter race in a best 3:35.10.