Over 300 Shrugged Off the Rain at Katy’s Courage 5K
Ryan Fowkes, East Hampton High’s top long-distance runner, who hopes to compete in the state meet’s 1,600-meter race this spring, bested a field of more than 300 in the Katy’s Courage 5K in Sag Harbor Saturday in an impressive time of 15 minutes and 55 seconds, bettering last year’s winning time of 16:48.37.
Gustavo Morastitla, a fellow 18-year-old, of Southampton, was close behind, in 16:00.74.
Rain, heavy at times — though it was to abate about two-thirds of the way through the 3.1-miler through Sag Harbor Village — resulted in fewer participants this year. Presumably because of the rain the turnout was about half the size of 2018’s.
The first road race of the season, the 5K benefits the Katy’s Courage foundation, which funds pediatric cancer research, scholarships at Pierson and East Hampton High Schools, and free Katy’s Kids sessions for grieving children at the Children’s Museum of the East End in Bridgehampton. The foundation is named in memory of Jim and Brigid Collins Stewart’s daughter, Katy, who died of a rare form of liver cancer at the age of 12 eight years ago.
The scholarships, the Stewarts have said, go “to students who exemplify remarkable courage, kindness, and empathy, as did Katy during her all too brief but exceptional lifetime.”
Ava Engstrom, Fowkes’s counterpart on East Hampton’s girls track team, won among the females, in 20:37.78. Ben Turnbull, the boys coach, had about 15 of his competitors with him; Yani Cuesta, the girls coach, about half as many.
Speaking of the girls team, it won its first meet of the season last week, besting Wyandanch 98-40, and, on Friday, gave Miller Place a run for its money, losing 75-64.
Cuesta said in an email that given the fact that half of the team was missing because of a field trip to the city, she was happily surprised by the result.
Engstrom won the 1,500 that day, in 5:10.7. “It was an exciting race,” said Cuesta. “The girls were neck and neck coming around the last curve, but Ava pulled away in a sprint for the finish.”
Engstrom also anchored the winning 4-by-400 relay team, which included Penelope Greene, Bella Tarbet, and Ellie Borzilleri, and was the runner-up in the 800.
(Tarbet and Greene were also in the Katy’s Courage 5K, placing second and fourth among the females, in 20:58.80 and 21:15.17.)
East Hampton swept the 400 on Friday, with Charlotte Johnson, Marlena Bellucci, and Anissa Santiago. Lillie Minskoff won the 100 and was second in the 200; JiJi Kramer won the racewalk in a season-best 8:21.1, with Mimi Fowkes the runner-up; Tarbet won the 3,000 in a season-best 11:55.5; Tifany Gomez won the shot-put in 24 feet 2 inches, with Paige Schaefer second in a personal-best 22-8; Bella Espinoza won the pole vault, and Grace Brosnan was a runner-up in the high jump, at 4-8, and in the 100-meter high hurdles.
As for the Wyandanch meet, Jennifer Ortiz, in the triple jump, Brosnan, in the 100 hurdles, 400 hurdles, and high jump, Engstrom, in the 1,500 and 800, Hanna Medler, in the 400, Minskoff, in the 100 and 200, and Tarbet, in the 3,000, were all winners.
Back to Katy’s Courage, the top 10 was rounded out by Ben Mac, 15, in 17:59.61; Colin Davis, 34, in 18:01.46; Evan Masi, 14, in 18:03.93; Amari Gordon, 15, in 18:18.87; Aiden Klarman, 15, in 18:20.33; Chris Husband, 49, in 18:59.54; Peter Schaefer, 16, in 19:02.05, and Daniel Dern, 53, in 19:07.65.