Malone, Relay Teams Lead Southampton At County Track Meet; Samuel Shines For East Hampton

It was a day of glory for the Southampton track and field program at the Class C county championship meet at Mount Sinai High School on May 26.

A pair of relay teams took home county championships, with freshman Sophia Oliveri, senior Carli Cameron, senior Gabriella Arnold and sophomore Kyla Cerullo winning the girls 4x100-meter relay in a time of 51.92 seconds, while the quartet of Harrison Gavalas, Billy Malone, Saintino Arnold and Evan Simioni won the boys 4x400-meter relay with a time of 3:32.66.

Senior Billy Malone continued his impressive season, winning the 800-meter race in 1:58.59, with a comfortable margin of victory over second-place finisher Wyatt Tegay of Mount Sinai, who finished in 2:02.21. Southampton boys track coach said that Malone “has a clear path” to states, as the top ranked 800-meter runner in the county. He added that the 4x4 team also has a strong chance to qualify for states.

In winning their county title, the girls 4x1 team proved that the third time was the charm, as they edged out Port Jefferson, a team that had beat them twice during the regular season. Oliveri, Cameron and Arnold gave a good lead to anchor runner Cerullo, who had to square off against Port Jeff’s fastest runner for the final leg. The lead evaporated, but Cerullo came through with a final push to secure the win. Port Jeff finished second in 52.07 seconds. Southampton will need to beat its rival again at the state qualifier meet — set for Friday, June 3, and Saturday, June 4, at Comsewogue High School — if it wants to make it to states.

Several other Mariner athletes on both teams earned All-County status by finishing in the top three in their respective events. For the boys, Ryan Smith was second in the high jump, clearing 6 feet, a personal best for him. Dottin said he has a chance to qualify for states if he can repeat that performance at the qualifier. Harrison Gavalas was second in the 400-meter race in 52.83 seconds, another strong All-County showing for the team.

Amanda Koszalka, a freshman, beat her previous personal best time by more than 15 seconds in the 1,500-meter racewalk, outperforming her fifth seed to take second in 8:45. Senior Bridget Ferguson cleared 5 feet to take third in the high jump, while freshman Harper Souhrada was second in the pole vault, clearing 7 feet 6 inches.

William Ouzounian had a pair of top-10 finishes, taking seventh in both the shot put and discus throw.

Senior Taylor Zukosky missed out on a county title in the long jump by just half an inch, taking second with a personal-best leap of 16 feet, 10 and ½ inches, an improvement of more than a foot from her previous best jump. By finishing in the top three, she still earned All-County status.

There were plenty of other personal-best finishes that fell outside of All-County status but were impressive nonetheless. Arnold had a time of 27.11 in the girls 200-meter race to take fifth; Cerullo was fourth in the 100-meter dash 13.23 seconds; Jeorgianna Gavalas finished fifth in the 3,000-meter race in 11:20; Sloane Edson reached 31 feet, 2 and ½ inches in the triple jump; Jessica Rojas had a mark of 25 feet, 10 and ¼ inches in the shot put, good enough for ninth place; and Laine Yastrzemski finished the 400-meter race in 63.61 seconds to take fifth. All of those were personal-best times.

The East Hampton girls track and field team had several top-10 finishes at the county Class B meet at Kings Park High School on May 25, finishing 10th out of 13 teams.

In the 100-meter race, Leslie Samuel finished third in 13.36, after posting a personal-best time of 13.16 seconds in the qualifying race to make it to finals. Samuel was also third in the long jump, with a personal record of 16 feet 10 inches. She earned All-County status by finishing in the top three in those events.

Samuel was also fifth in the 200-meter race, finished in 28.15 seconds in tough circumstances. She rushed to the starting line shortly after finishing the long jump finals, and head coach Yani Cuesta said she did not have much time to recover in between events.

“I knew it was going to be tough for her to better her time,” she said. “She had been having an incredible day, bettering each of her performances, but as much as you want it for them the reality is she needed a little bit more time to fully recover. All that said, she ran well and finished in fifth place, getting us points for our overall team standings.”

In the 400-meter race, Ryleigh O’Donnell was seventh with a time of 63.42 seconds, and she was also seventh in the 400-meter intermediate hurdles in 74.36 seconds, a personal best. Alexa Gomez was ninth in the same race, with a personal best time of 76.72 seconds.

In the 2,000-meter steeplechase, both Dylan Cashin and Sara O’Brien had personal best times, finishing in sixth and eighth, respectively, with times of 7:40.61 and 8:31.16.

The 4x400-meter relay team of Meredith Spolarich, Khalila Martin, Dylan Cashin and Ryleigh O’Donnell was fourth with a season’s best time of 4:29.57, while the 4x100 team of Isabel Doyle, Bella Hopson, Samantha Ruano and Madelyn Cohen was ninth in 57.89 seconds.

In the high jump, Spolarich was fourth after clearing 4 feet, 10 inches, while in the discus throw, Kristina Baratta was 11th with a personal-best mark of 70 feet, 3 inches.

For the boys, Peter Joseph Ramundo was fourth in the 3,200-meter race in 10:38.48, while Diego Rojas and Brayan Rivera finished sixth and seventh in the 1,600-meter race in 4:54.54 and 4:54.64.