Shelter Island cross country teams start season winning
The Shelter Island School girls and boys varsity cross county team. Front row from left: Emma Martinez Majdisova, Lily Garrison, Caitlin Binder, Abigail Kotula, Isabella Sherman, Lindsey Gallagher, Lauren Gurney, Francesca Frasco and Emma Gallagher. Back row from left: Brandon Payano, Walter Richards, Jack Lang, Michael Payano, Joshua Green, Kal Lewis, Tyler Gulluscio and Jonas Kinsey. Not pictured: Justine Karen, Will Garrison, Darien Hunter, Roi Carbajal, Domingo Gil Jr. and Pacey Cronin.
Another school year is under way and the Shelter Island School varsity boys and girls cross country teams are back and ready to run. After last season’s successes, with both teams earning both league and Class D county titles, this season couldn’t happen soon enough for the athletes.
Many of our seasoned runners are back and we added fresh new faces as well. Veterans on the girls roster include junior Caitlin Binder, junior Francesca Frasco, junior Lindsey Gallagher, sophomore Lily Garrison, sophomore Justine Karen, freshman Emma Gallagher and freshman Lauren Gurney.
New faces on the team include junior Isabella Sherman, freshman Abigail Kotula and 7th grader Emma Martinez Majdisova.
Seasoned returners on the boys roster include senior Will Garrison, junior Joshua Green, junior Darien Hunter, junior Jack Lang, sophomore Michael Payano, freshman Jonas Kinsey, freshman Kal Lewis, freshman Walter Richards and 8th grader Tyler Gulluscio.
New additions on the boys’ team include sophomore Roi Carbajal, 8th grader Domingo (Junior) Gil, 8th grader Brandon Payano and 7th grader Pacey Cronin.
The season started with our first “crossover” on September 6. A crossover is similar to a scrimmage in other sports and is not officially scored toward league standings and records. Our newest team members had their first opportunity to run and learn our home course, the 2.5 miles of the Shelter Island Country Club fairways at Goat Hill. The boys and girls teams from East Hampton and Pierson came to Shelter Island to run here and we received quite a few comments from our off-Island colleagues about how “challenging” (translation — “hilly”) the Goat was.
On Tuesday the season’s first official league meet was run on our course. The girls team ran against Stony Brook and Southold.
On a hot day and in a close race, the girls defeated Stony Brook by a score of 25-31, and defeated Southold by a score of 15-49.
Scoring for the Indians were Lindsey Gallagher (16:10) in first place, Emma Gallagher (17:06, a personal record or “PR”) in second, Karen (18:46-PR) in fourth, Lily Garrison (19:30-PR) in seventh and Frasco (22:08) in 10th place. The remaining Islanders, Martinez Majdisova (22:27-PR), Sherman (23:36-PR) and Gurney (24:27) ran well for this early in the season. Kotula and Binder, both on the mend, lightly jogged the course together. The girls team league record is 2-0.
The boys team then ran against Southold and Pierson. The boys defeated Southold by a score of 18-39, and defeated Pierson by a score of 15-42. Scoring for the Indians were Lewis (14:01) in first place, Green (14:11-PR) in second place, Will Garrison (15:21) in fourth, Kinsey (15:55) in fifth and Michael Payano (16:27-PR) in sixth. The remaining Indians, Gulluscio (17:28-PR), Lang (17:42), Brandon Payano (18:44-PR), Richards (19:15) and Cronin (21:28-PR) complemented the team’s fine performance. The boys team league record is 2-0.
The coaches and athletes thank hometown crowd, including some cross country alumni, for coming out to cheer us on. If you’ve ever competed, you know how hard it can be near the end of a race, and the vocal encouragement of the hometown crowd definitely gives the athletes a surge of energy to finish strong. We’d also like to thank Shelter Island Country Club’s Ron Lucas and Gator for providing their support as we set up and made some improvements on the course.
Next week’s meets will be away at Sunken Meadow on September 20 and September 24. Our next home meet will be Tuesday, September 27.
