Winter track opens with school records shattered

This past week Mother Nature certainly put the “winter” in winter track.

In Shelter Island School’s second season offering varsity boys and girls winter track, we currently have a roster of 17 athletes. Since the season began in early December we’ve been battling cold weather. We actually look forward to those days where it “warms up” to freezing.

It takes a hardy bunch of athletes to run during the winter months. Coach Toby Green is coaching a roster of 12 boys this season. Seniors Joshua Green and Jack Lang are the team’s captains. Junior Michael Payano, sophomores Jonas Kinsey, Kal Lewis and Alberto Morales, freshmen Domingo “Junior” Gil, Jason Green, Tyler Gulluscio, Brandon Payano and Daniel Schulteis, and 8th Grader Pacey Cronin round out the team.

On the girls team, I’m coaching a roster of five. Seniors Francesca Frasco and Lindsey Gallagher, the team captains, returned from last year. Senior Isabella Sherman joined the team this year making the switch from cheering. Sophomores Emma Gallagher and Lauren Gurney complete the roster.

Track includes a variety of running events, from the 55-meter dash to the 2-mile run, and many distances in between. Covering the spectrum from the short sprint to the distance run, track gives athletes opportunities to find the events they are strong in as well as some events just for fun. One of the most competitive and team-oriented events are the four-person relay events.

Thus far the boys have had three crossover meets and the girls two at Suffolk County Community College’s Brentwood campus. The girls third crossover got re-scheduled due to our first snowstorm of the season and, unfortunately,it was scheduled the same evening as Shelter Island School’s winter concert, so we were unable to compete.

Both teams are making great progress despite the lack of track facilities. And no, Santa did not bring us a 200-meter track for Christmas. There’s a lot of competition in our school among all the winter sport programs to practice in the gym.

As coaches and athletes, we have to be super flexible and very creative in finding ways to get in quality workouts. You may see us running outdoors unless it’s really frigid, or if roads are covered by snow and ice. You may see us running in the school’s hallways, up and down stairs or using treadmills, bicycles and other equipment at the FIT Center.

Since we‘ve had three meets in December, the results are summarized by reporting the best times that each athlete has achieved thus far this season. For the girls, Gurney ran the 55-meter dash in 8.71, narrowly missing her personal record by 2/100 of a second. Emma Gallagher and Lindsey Gallagher have run the 600-meter dash in 1:51.56 and 1:46.27, respectively, a good early season start.

Emma Gallagher and Isabella Sherman have run the 1,000-meter run in 3:26.54 and 4:16.00, respectively, a nice transition from cross country.

Frasco and Lindsey Gallagher ran the 1,500-meter run in 6:20.84 and 5:07.00, respectively. Frasco broke the school record in the 1,500 meter race walk with a time of 12:19.79, a record established in 1997. Gurney, Emma Gallagher, Frasco and Lindsey Gallagher crushed the school record established last season by 9 seconds in the 4 x 200 meter relay with a time of 2:04.32.

For the boys, Joshua Green and Michael Payano, ran the 55-meter dash in 7.72 and 7.87 seconds, respectively. In the 300-meter dash, Cronin, Joshua Green, Gulluscio, Michael Payano and Schulteis have run 49, 39.48, 45.45, 42.06 and 54 seconds, respectively.

In the 600-meter dash, a popular event for the boys, seniors Joshua Green and Lang ran 1:28.69 and 1:38.47, junior Michael Payano ran 1:38.73, sophomores Kinsey and Lewis ran 1:34.88 and 1:27.60, freshmen Gil, Jason Green, Gulluscio, Brandon Payano and Schulteis ran 1:45.53, 2:01, 1:47, 1:47 and 2:12 and eighth grader Cronin ran 1:59, respectively.

In the 1,000-meter run, Gil, Jason Green, Joshua Green and Lang ran 3:07.00, 3:36.52, 2:45.64 and 3:04.30, respectively. In the 1,600 meter run, Cronin, Joshua Green, Gulluscio, Kinsey, Lang and Lewis ran 6:03.98, 4:41.34, 5:18.94, 4:57.34, 5:11.00 and 4:35.70, respectively. In the 3,200-meter run, Gil, Lewis, Brandon Payano and Michael Payano ran 11:16.58, 9:47.17, 11:14.88 and 12:10.50, respectively.

During December, the boys also did a great job of breaking school records and all bested their personal records. Joshua Green now holds the school records in the 55-meter, 300-meter and 1,000- meter runs. Lewis now holds the school records in the 600-meter, 1,600-meter and 3,200-meter runs. Lewis’ 3,200-meter time is the best time to date this season by any Section 11 athlete.

The former 3,200-meter school record holder was Coach Green himself, a record that stood for 32 years. Both Lewis and Green are in the top eight Section XI athletes in the 1,600-meter run as well.

Finally, the relay team of Joshua Green, Kinsey, Lewis and Michael Payano broke the school’s record in the 4 x 400 meter relay, a record dating back to 1994, with a time of 3:45.03 and captured a third-place finish against small schools and large schools alike. Great job by Coach Green and the boys team.

This week the teams will have a busy schedule with the girls running three meets and the boys two. We’ll report on those next week.

See you out on the roads, if it ever warms up enough!