25 Years Ago in Bonac Sports 05.31.12
May 7, 1987
Boys tennis continued last week as the only undefeated team among the six fielded by East Hampton High School in the spring. The Bonac squad topped Mercy, Stony Brook, and Smithtown West to run its record to 7-0.
In a 6-1 win over Mercy on April 29, all three doubles teams — Luke Wornstaff and Clark Silva, Marc Kenny and Mauricio Castillo, and Tom Kalbacher and Chris Wellenborg — won their matches without the loss of a game. It was a “first” as far as East Hampton’s coach, John Goodman, could remember.
The late East Hampton and Mepham High School wrestling coach, Frank (Sprig) Gardner, was inducted posthumously into the Long Island Sports Hall of Fame at a recent ceremony in Garden City.
Elizabeth McCourt and Dawn Donatuti, an East Hampton High School girls track team pairing, walked away with first place in the 1,500-meter racewalk at the conference relays on Saturday, and Mandy Brugnoni set a school triple jump record of 30 feet in a dual meet at Southampton last Thursday.
Andy Neidnig, the 67-year-old Sag Harbor runner, won the 65-to-69-year-old division in Sunday’s Long Island marathon in 3 hours, 23 minutes, and 44 seconds.
Neidnig, who also was the fastest runner over 60 in the 26.2-mile race, finishing 173rd among 1,033 competitors, was happy to report that he keeps getting better. Last year, his time was 3:25:05.
May 14, 1987
The Montauk Rugby Club, according to its president, Charlie Whitmore, proved itself to be “the top side on Long Island” in Saturday’s tournament at Heckscher State Park in Islip.
Montauk finished third among the tourney’s eight sides, scoring wins over Rockaway and Long Island after losing 13-11 to the New York Rugby Club, the eventual runner-up to the Connecticut Yankees, in the first round.
“We accomplished what we set out to do,” said Whitmore, concerning the revived Montauk rugby team, whose spring match record was 4-3. “Everybody knows now that Montauk is back full time. Our notoriety is surfacing once again in the New York rugby world.”
The message of the weeklong FitHampton health fair, which benefited Southampton Hospital, seemed to be: Stay loose through stretching, don’t overdo, and eat smaller portions.
The yoga lecturer, Patia Cunningham of the Body Shop in East Hampton, spoke of yoga as “a way of keeping your body tuned up. . . . We need maintenance at least as much as our cars do.”
May 28, 1987
The East Hampton High School boys track team, which won the League Seven championship at 8-0, added the Conference Four crown — for the first time ever — in a meet held here on May 19.
“The key was the triple jump,” said East Hampton’s coach, Mike Burns. “That got us 22 points, and put us over the top.” Four of the triple jump’s top five were Bonackers.
While East Hampton had only two winners that day — Jim Dunlop in the 400-meter run and Barry Johnson in the triple jump, with a hop, skip, and leap of 38 feet 4 inches — the team placed in 15 of the 17 events.
Bonac’s runners-up were Artie Fisher in the 800 at 2:05.7; Danny Evans in the 100 at 11.2, a personal best; the 4-by-100-meter relay team of Scott Bates, Dean Foster, Jeff LaCarrubba, and Evans, in 47.2, and Rich Ross in the discus at 125-10.
Michael Scott, the number-one player on the East Hampton High School boys tennis team, won the Conference Four singles championship Tuesday, defeating Westhampton’s number-one, Fred Nassauer, 6-2, 6-2 in a match played at Westhampton Beach High School. East Hampton also won the conference doubles championship as Luke Wornstaff and Clark Silva downed Southampton’s Teague Cameron and Tim Hull in the final, 4-6, 6-2, 6-1.
East Hampton went undefeated in League Seven play, at 14-0, to win the league crown for the second straight year. It was 15-1 over all, the only loss coming at the hands of Ward Melville.
It was the first time that East Hampton has gone undefeated in league play, said its coach, John Goodman.
Goodman rated this year’s and last year’s teams as the best boys teams he’s ever had. The 1986 squad went 17-3.