Bonac Tracksters Head to the Elite Meet

Ryan Fowkes, the East Hampton senior who earlier this month won the 1,000 meters at the county small schools championship and then finished second at that distance a week later in the Section XI state qualifier, will compete on Saturday at the Long Island Elite Meet at St. Anthony’s High School in South Huntington, along with his teammate Matt Maya, who will run the 300 meters.

Fowkes will be “in the 1,600-meter run,” his coach, Ben Turnbull, said by email, “and try and get the school record of 4:26.80 set by Erik Engstrom back in 2016.”

Engstrom, who was a county champion in cross-country while at East Hampton, now runs for the University of Massachusetts. His sister, Ava Engstrom, a distance runner on Coach Yani Cuesta’s girls winter track team, will also compete at St. Anthony’s, in the 1,500 meters, joined by her teammate and fellow sophomore, Penelope Greene of Pierson High School in Sag Harbor.  

And for Fowkes the season won’t end there, as his 2:36.15 second-place finish in the state qualifier, which was held on Feb. 11 at Suffolk Community College-Brentwood, means he’ll run the 1,000 at the state championship meet on March 2 at the Ocean Breeze indoor track complex on Staten Island. 

“He is considered all-county as well,” Turnbull said. “His time was his second best time of the season.” His best being the school-record 2:34.75 1,000 he ran in the small schools meet on Feb. 3. 

Fowkes “is ranked 24th in the state for this event, but not everyone that is on this list is running it at states,” Turnbull said. “He is most likely in the top 10 for the runners that will run this event at the state meet.”