What East Hampton/Pierson/Bridgehampton Girls Indoor Track Team Lacks in Quantity Makes Up for in Quality

What the East Hampton/Pierson/Bridgehampton girls indoor track team lacks in quantity, in terms of overall numbers of student-athletes on the team this season, it certainly makes up for with quality, with a handful of girls who consistently place in the top three at most meets, some even breaking school records this season.

“Our team is small but mighty,” head coach Yani Cuesta said. “Our older girls, many of whom did spring track, but this is their first winter season, are strong. Several of our new younger athletes are surprising us with their strength and determination. I’m absolutely happy with how the season is developing so far.”

This week’s pair of meets were prime examples.

At the Jim Howard Invitational at Suffolk County Community College in Brentwood on Thursday, January 5, Bridgehampton’s Leslie Samuel placed second in the long jump with a leap of 16 feet 5 ¼ inches. Pierson’s Meredith Spolarich placed fourth in the high jump reaching 4 feet 11 inches and East Hampton’s Ryleigh O’Donnell placed third in the 600-meter run in a personal best 1:44.45.

Paige Daniels also competed in the 1,500-meter race walk for the first time ever and did a lot better than Cuesta expected her to, crossing the finish line in 10:56.78. The race walk tends to have a build up to the end of the race, but this was the most exciting race of the day for Cuesta, she said, because Daniels had basically volunteered to compete in it.

“She decided to try it when we pointed out we had nobody in it and were desperately seeking volunteers to try to learn it,” she explained. “She was willing, and as we started we lost the opportunity to continue when she went away on break. She returned and had to build back up from zero. Her form looked good to me, but it’s always difficult to really tell as the girls are outside and dressed in sweatpants.

“She had never even attempted the entire distance before this meet,” Cuesta continued. “We were going in blind, but confident that she could do it. She blew me away with the way she competed. Her form was great, and she blew me away finishing over 30 seconds faster than what I thought she would do. I know that it’s not just me but the other coaches (Eric Malecki and Nick DeLuca) would agree that we are nothing but proud and happy when athletes step up to the plate like that.”

At the girls’ most recent crossover meet on Sunday back at Suffolk-Brentwood, Samuel reached a personal best 17 feet in the long jump, which won the event. She also placed second in the 55-meter dash in 7.84 seconds. O’Donnell won the 600-meter run and reset her personal best to 1:43.85 and she also placed third in the 55-meter high hurdles in 10.72 seconds. East Hampton’s Dylan Cashin placed second in a season’s best 11:05.06 and Spolarich reached 5 feet in the high jump to finish second. O’Donnell, Samuel, Melina Sarlo and Sam Ruano placed second in the 4x200-meter relay in 1:57.32.

Samuel, Spolarich, Sarlo and O’Donnell had set a new school record in the 4x400-meter relay, finishing in 4:24.34, at an earlier crossover meet this season. That time topped the 2016 record by 10 seconds set previously by Devon Brown, Ana Toledo, Elexa Berti and Elizabeth Bistrian. What made the new record even more impressive was the fact that Samuel was tripped up by another runner starting the second lap, according to Cuesta. To her credit, Samuel got back up and continued to run.

O’Donnell also set a new school record in the 400-meter run at the Ocean Breeze Invitational at the Ocean Breeze Athletic Complex on Staten Island on December 27. She finished the race in 64.06 seconds, topping Lillie Minskoff’s previous record of 71.62 seconds set on December 27, 2019.

East Hampton sophomore Benson Edman led the Bonac boys at their latest crossover meet on Saturday at Suffolk-Brentwood. He won the 1,000-meter race in 2:59.77.

Brayan Rivera, a junior, placed second in the 600-meter run in 1:28.51. Another junior, Diego Rojas, placed third in the 1,600-meter race in 4:43.34. East Hampton had a pair of teams run in the 4x200-meter relay that placed fifth and sixth, respectively, in 1:50.46 and 2:06.46.