Strong start to 2017 Shelter Island cross country season
BY JUSTINE KAREN
For some, autumn means it’s time to don a sweater and go apple picking. To others, it warns of the approach of a rapid fire holiday season. But to the current 21 members of the Shelter Island School cross country teams and their coaches, Bryan Gallagher and Toby Green, fall ushers in a new season of competition.
Notably, this will be the final season for more than half of the runners on the girl’s team. With Lindsey Gallagher, Francesca Frasco, Isabella Sherman and Justine Karen graduating in June, next year’s team will be left in the hands of Emma Gallagher, Lauren Gurney and Emma Martinez Majdisova.
Similarly, after 2017, the boys team will lose its two reigning co-captains, Jack Lang and Joshua Green. Lang and Green have their work cut out for them leading a team — large for Shelter Island — of 12 other boys, including three first time runners, to a championship.
This year’s boys varsity cross country team is comprised of Roi Carbajal, Jonas Kinsey, Kal Lewis, Alberto Morales Pacey Cronin, Domingo “Junior” Gil, Jason Green, Tyler Gulluscio, Jack Lang, Joshua Green, Theo Olinkiewicz, Michael Payano, Brandon Payano, Nicholas Mamisashvili and Matthew Strauss.
Both the boys and girls teams have been training hard throughout the summer, fighting the heat and the even more punishing humidity, in preparation for their first meet against Pierson High School at Mashashimuet Park in Sag Harbor on September 12.
Expectations are also high for an upcoming trip to Rochester, New York, where the athletes will compete on the same course as this year’s State Championship course come November.
On Sunday, September 10, several of the members of the teams made their way into Manhattan for the annual Fifth Avenue Mile. Setting a hopeful tone for the upcoming season, Lindsey Gallagher and Joshua Green not only shattered their own personal records (PR) in mile times, but also broke the Shelter Island High School record times with races of 5:04 and 4:26 respectively.
Before Sunday’s race in Manhattan, the fastest recorded girl’s mile time in school history was held by Janelle Kraus, at 5:06, only two seconds behind Gallagher’s. The boy’s previous record time was Ian Thompson’s 4:38 minute mile, a full 10 seconds slower than Green’s.
Francesca Frasco impressed her coaches and teammates by running a speedy 6:44 minute at Sunday’s prestigious race. PR times were in abundance for Shelter Island, with Kal Lewis clocking a time of 5:26; Jason Green at 5:59, Lang at 5:01; and Emma Gallagher with a 5:36.