Shelter Island cross country teams compete at Hampton Bays
On Thursday, October 8, under sunny skies, the Shelter Island School boys and girls varsity cross country teams raced at Red Creek Park in Hampton Bays at the Westhampton Cross Country Invitational.
All of the freshman and middle school athletes competed in freshman races on a 1.55 mile course. The older athletes competed in 5K races.
In the boys freshman race, 8th grader Kal Lewis led his race from start to finish and took 1st place (8:10), 8th grader Liam Adipietro placed 5th (9:51), 7th grader Tyler Gulluscio placed 9th (10:22) and 8th grader Walter Richards placed 10th (10:36).
In the girls freshman race, 8th grader Emma Gallagher dominated her competition and took 1st place (9:34), freshman Lily Garrison placed 5th (11:05), freshman Elizabeth Cummings placed 7th (12:41) and 8th grader Lauren Gurney placed 10th (12:53).
The upperclassmen raced next in 5K races. Our boys team raced first, among 58 runners and the Indians placed 2nd out of six teams. Scoring for the Indians were sophomore Joshua Green placing 3rd (18:14), junior Will Garrison placing 11th (19:46), senior Jack Kimmelmann close behind placed 12th (19:48), sophomore Jack Lang placed 16th (20:44) and sophomore Darien Hunter placed 24th (21:19). Junior Chanin Inturam, the remaining Indian, ran 32:41.
All the Islanders earned new personal records (PR), besting their Red Creek times by 30 seconds or more.
Our girls team raced next amongst 57 athletes. The Indians did not score as a team because only four girls raced and the minimum to score as a team is five. Sophomore Lindsey Gallagher, with her strongest cross country performance yet, placed 1st (20:39 PR), with sophomore Caitlin Binder placing 5th (22:56 PR). Sophomore Francesca Frasco placed 13th (24:01) and junior Olivia Yeaman placed 41st (28:35), both besting their previous Red Creek times by more than 45 seconds!
The Indians will be running the Shelter Island Fall 5K this Saturday, October 17 followed by our last league competition at Sunken Meadow State Park on Tuesday, October 20 versus Port Jefferson. Both Indian teams have league records of 3-0. Port Jefferson is a much larger Class C school whose boys team also has a league record of 3-0.
This is one of the races the team has been talking about all season The boys race is sure to be a very closely contested and the Indian girls team is a strong favorite. For both Indian teams, winning means earning the title of undefeated league champions. Wish both our teams health and good luck.
Go Indians!
