Featured Story

Boys cross country win on soggy Goat

REPORTER FILE PHOTO Boys cross country team members
REPORTER FILE PHOTO
Boys cross country team members

BY BRYAN GALLAGHER | COACH

The Goat, our home course at the Shelter Island Country Club, is one some athletes love and others hate. The 2.5 mile course is the most challenging home course in Suffolk County, with some long and steep uphills. On the Goat it’s either up or down, and not much of anything else in between.

On September 25, the Indians hosted Pierson in our first home meet this season. It had rained all day before and during the race, so the course was soggy and very slow. The boys defeated Pierson by a score of 17-40. Scoring for the Indians were junior Kal Lewis in first place with 14:09, junior Jonas Kinsey in second with 14:57, sophomore Junior Gil in third with 15:19, sophomore Tyler Gulluscio in fourth with 15:29 and senior Michael Payano in seventh with 16:30.

The remaining Indians ran as follows: sophomore Nick Mamisashvili ran a personal record (“PR”) with 16:32, sophomore Theo Olinkiewicz 17:30 (PR), sophomore Daniel Schulteis 17:55 (PR), freshman Pacey Cronin 18:36, sophomore Jalill Carter 18:56 (PR) and sophomore Jason Green 19:49.

The girls team lost in a close contest to Pierson by a score of 22-33. Scoring for the lady Indians were junior Emma Gallagher taking third place with 19:47, freshman Ariana Carter in fifth with 23:59 (PR), 8th grader Madison Springer in seventh with 24:56 (PR), freshman Olivia Overstreet in eighth with 25:23 (PR) and 7th grader Kaitlyn Gulluscio in tenth with 33:23 (PR).

On September 29, a beautiful fall day, the varsity teams traveled to Sunken Meadow State Park for the Suffolk Coaches Invitational. Sunken Meadow is hosting the State Championship this year, so this invitational had over 105 teams competing, since many upstate teams take the opportunity to race it and get a preview of what they’ll be up against when the State Championships roll around in early November.

Running the varsity 5K boys race, Lewis ran 17:23.94, Kinsey ran 19:15.60, Tyler Gulluscio ran 19:23.65, Gil ran 20:38.88, Payano ran 20:59.25, Mamisashvili ran 22:15.17 (PR) and Olinkiewicz 22:43.76 (PR). The boys placed 9th out of 18 teams in their race. Gallagher was the only female athlete running the varsity 5K girls race for the Indians and she posted a time of 23:37.63.

Schulteis led the Indians in the junior varsity 5K race with 23:16.81 (PR), followed by Jalill Carter 23:51.01 (PR), Green 24:25.08 and Strauss 25:55.73 (PR). Cronin ran the freshman 1.5 mile course with a time of 9:40.88 (PR).

Closing out the day, Ariana Carter led the Lady Indians in the girls freshman 1.5 mile race with 12:01.31 (PR) closely followed by Overstreet with 12:06.09 (PR). In her first time running the course, Springer ran 12:29.84 (PR), while Kaitlyn Gulluscio ran a time of 15:29.05 (PR). It was a great showing by the girls. Each had improved on the times they ran two weeks ago on this course by 20 to nearly 40 seconds.

Next week, the Indians will be traveling to Sunken Meadow for a league meet on a 2.8 mile course versus Port Jefferson. The boys will be defending their league championship title against a very strong Port Jeff squad. Wish all the best of luck.