Cross country teams compete at ‘infamous’ Sunken Meadow Park
Familiar ground for boys cross country leader Kal Lewis running last year at Sunken Meadow State Park, where the Island’s teams competed again this week.
Since Coach Bryan Gallagher is away for work this week, he was unable to attend Tuesday’s meet.
Nonetheless, as any competitive runner will tell you, cross country waits for no one. Indeed, that is particularly true of Shelter Island’s teams.
On Tuesday, October 25 the boys and girls teams left school at 10:15 a.m., just as third period ended, in order to compete in divisionals on the infamous Sunken Meadow State Park 5K course, up island in King’s Park.
This was the last race before the state qualifiers on Friday, November 5. Regardless of the meet’s comparative lack of importance, there was a collective determination to do well. As a Division IV school Shelter Island’s girls raced against students from Stony Brook, Mattituck and BishopMcGann-Mercy high schools, while the boys went up against Port Jefferson, Center Moriches, and Southampton. The roster was predetermined by the previous week’s league championships, during which our teams again clinched the title of League VIII champions.
The day’s first race was boys varsity, in which Shelter Island’s top seven boys — 8th grader Tyler Gulluscio, freshmen Kal Lewis, and Jonas Kinsey, sophomore Michael Payano, juniors Joshua Green, and Jack Lang, and senior Will Garrison — competed.
Kal Lewis, who holds a Sunken Meadow course record, was the first Islander to cross the finish line, earning a time of 17:04, followed shortly by Joshua Green (17:44). All the boys ran remarkably well on the very difficult course, as follows: Garrison 19:09, Kinsey (19:32), Payano (20:26), Lang (20:28), and Gulluscio (20:33).
The girl’s varsity race also included just the team’s top seven athletes. However, as three of the 10 girls (Emma Gallagher, Abigail Kotula, and Justine Karen) were injured and unable to run, the varisty girls had just enough runners to compile a full team. Junior Lindsey Gallagher led the Island girls, finishing at 21:24.
Sophomore Lily Garrison, shaving almost two minutes off her personal best, ran the course in 22:35. Then came 7th grader Emma Martinez Majdisova (25:20), juniors Francesca Frasco and Caitlin Binder (tied with 25:38), freshman Lauren Gurney (27:11), and junior Isabella Sherman (29:19). Ending the race with seven incredibly strong finishes, the girl’s team beat its rival, Stony Brook by 10 points.
The final event Shelter Island took part in was the boy’s individual race. Domingo Gil, an 8th grader, ran an impressive 20:08, to be followed by two more high- achieving times from freshman Walter Richard (23:07) and 8th grader Brandon Payano (24:30).
As the season winds down both teams eagerly await the chance to return to states, and in the days leading up to qualifiers are determined to train hard in order to get there. The team extends a big “thank you” to the Shelter Island community, as well as to our extremely dedicated Coaches Green, Knipfing and Gallagher for all of the support you provide.
