Ferguson Will Represent Southampton In State High Jump Field

Sometimes, not knowing is better.

That’s the strategy Southampton girls indoor track head coach Eddie Arnold took with his high jumper Bridget Ferguson at the Section XI Championships, otherwise known as the state qualifier, at Suffolk County Community College in Brentwood on Monday night. And it paid off.

Competing against the top jumpers in the county, Ferguson thought she was clearing heights that were 1 inch less than what she was actually clearing. For example, when she cleared 5 feet, she thought she cleared 4 feet 11 inches. Continuing his hands-off approach from throughout the season, Arnold figured what Ferguson didn’t know wouldn’t hurt her, and he was right.

Ferguson wound up clearing 5 feet 2 inches, setting a new personal best by an inch and resetting her own school record, and because the senior did it in less attempts than her competition, she placed second in the county and is heading to the New York State Indoor Track and Field Championships at the Ocean Breeze Athletic Complex on Staten Island, which won’t take place until March 5.

“After she cleared 5’1, I told Bridget, ‘All right, we’re playing with house money now,’ because that’s what we say to each other when we’ve got nothing to lose,” Arnold explained. “She didn’t pick up on it and instead of telling her, I just ran with it. She was in such a good groove I just let her do her thing. I mean, she was clearing heights she hadn’t cleared before, all on her first attempts. She set the tone for the field. She cleared 5 feet, 5’1, 5’2 all on her first jumps.”

Bay Shore senior Mia Grassia won the county title in the high jump by clearing 5 feet 4 inches. Grassia, along with her teammate, junior Lauryn Piccirelli, and Half Hollow Hills West senior Dakota Wang, whom Ferguson had beat the week prior for the Small Schools title, all came into Monday night’s meet having hit the state qualifying standard of 5 feet 3 inches at previous meets. All they had to do in order to advance to states was finish in the top three at the state qualifier. With Ferguson placing second, Wang took the next placement to go to states, leaving Piccirelli on the outside looking in.

One thing Arnold noted was that Ferguson’s competition all hailed from larger schools. Indoor track is not separated by large and small schools like it is in the spring or even cross country in the fall, which makes qualifying for states that much more difficult, but equally satisfying.

To that end, Ferguson is just Arnold’s second student-athlete in his 20-plus years of coaching the team to reach the state meet. The other was Isabella Franz, who competed in the 600-meter run in 2013.

She’ll also be the only Southampton athlete at the state meet. Billy Malone, running against a stacked field in the 1,000-meter race with Northport senior Wyeth Semo and Gavin Ehlers of Westhampton Beach, finished fifth overall in the county in a personal best 2:39.16. Harrison Gavalas competed in both the 55-meter and 300-meter dashes. He finished the 55 in a personal best 6.84 seconds, which placed him 12th overall in the county, and he finished eighth overall in the 300 in 37.35 seconds. Christian Duggal, Evan Simioni, Riley Herrmann and Maxwell Murch competed in the 4x400-meter relay and finished 12th in 3:58.35.

Dylan Cashin, Ryleigh O’Donnell and P.J. Ramundo all reached the state qualifier for the East Hampton/Pierson/Bridgehampton boys and girls indoor track teams.

Cashin, an East Hampton senior, finished with the highest placement of the three, finishing eighth in the girls 3,000-meter race in 11:12.57. O’Donnell, an East Hampton sophomore, placed 14th in the girls 1,500-meter race in 5:19.74 and Pierson senior Ramundo finished 11th in the boys 3,200-meter race in 10:19.44.