Teams Faring Well By and Large

    As of Tuesday morning, standings posted on Section XI’s Web site showed East Hampton High’s boys soccer and girls swimming teams in first place in league competition, with boys and girls volleyball and girls cross-country in runner-up positions.

    The golf team, which has been a perennial champion over the greater part of the past decade, is not faring as well match-wise as in the past, though Claude Beudert, the team’s longtime coach, said that “it’s been a really gratifying year coaching-wise. This is a young team, and we began the year just hoping to compete. During the course of the season the kids have gotten so much better.”

    “Southampton is very good — the fact that they beat Pierson on Pierson’s course shows how good they are.”

    The Bonackers played at Southampton this past week, and lost 8.5-.5, though the individual matches were competitive, the coach said. The Mariners, led by Scott Ricca, shot 184 over all — a course record as far as Beudert knew — which worked out to a 38.4-stroke average. The 9-hole par at Southampton is 34.

    At one, Ricca bested East Hampton’s senior number-one, Ian Lynch, 35-39; at two, Bonac’s number-two, Stephen King, who is a freshman, lost 38-43 to Matt Kreymborg. Evan Scheuck, Southampton’s number-three, parred in his match with Andrew Winthrop, who shot a 43.

    At four, Clinton Oakley and Matt Griffiths, an East Hampton junior, halved, with each at 38, and at five, Eddie McLaughlin shot a 39 to Josue Palacio’s 44.

    “If Southampton beats Pierson at their place, they’ll win the league, with one or no losses,” Beudert said. “If Pierson beats Southampton, we could tie for first if we beat Southampton at our place, which I think we can. In any case, it’s out of our hands.”

    Girls cross-country came through last week, defeating Westhampton Beach 26-30 in Riverhead. Diane O’Donnell, the coach, said, “It was a great performance. We had talked about it and had told the girls it was within their reach, and that it would come down to who wanted to win.”

    Dana Cebulski, East Hampton’s number-one, won in 20 minutes and 13 seconds. Westhampton took second and third, but then Bonac’s pack came into play: Jackie Messemer placed fourth in 22:33, her best time at Indian Island so far; Devon Brown placed sixth, in 22:58; Emma Newburger placed seventh, in 23:10, and Jamie Staubitser, East Hampton’s last runner to be scored, placed eighth, in 23:12.

    “Our middle guys made the difference,” said O’Donnell, “but everybody did well.”

    “It’s been a long time since we won two meets in a row,” she said, with a laugh.

    There may be some good news for cross-country fans here next fall inasmuch as Section XI is expected to certify a 2.7-mile course that Kevin Barry, the boys coach, and O’Donnell have laid out at Cedar Point County Park. “We’ve been working on [returning meets to Cedar Point] for three years,” said O’Donnell. “At first the county wanted to centralize everything, but more and more schools are getting to hold meets now on home courses. I think 1990 was the last year we had some home meets.”

    The boys and girls teams, which normally would run at Brown University this weekend, are going instead to Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx for a regional invitational there.

    “The boys team is really young,” said O’Donnell, who added that that team had come up just a couple of points short in a meet with Miller Place that Barry had thought his charges might win.

    As of Tuesday, the girls were 2-1 in league competition, tied for second place among the six teams, and the 2-2 boys were fourth among seven teams in their league.

    Girls tennis, coached by Michelle Kennedy, has been competitive this season. Before Friday’s match here with Shoreham-Wading River (which East Hampton won 7-0), Kennedy said, “We’ve had a number of close ones. The first time with Mercy we lost 4-3, the second time we won 4-3. We lost 4-3 to Westhampton, and we lost 4-3 to Ross,” the ninth-ranked team on Long Island as of Tuesday.

    East Hampton’s number-one, Abby Okin, a ninth grader, had as of that day lost only one match, to Mercy’s Cassidy Lessard — a three-setter. She was to avenge herself on Lessard in a subsequent match, however, winning 7-5 in the third.

    Okin was to have played Aimee Manfredo, Shoreham’s all-state player, on Friday, but Manfredo didn’t make the trip.

    Kennedy said the top five from leagues one, three, five, and seven will make the playoffs. The top two from leagues four, six, and eight will go, she said.

    Carly Grossman, a junior, is playing number-two for East Hampton; Sydney Sanicola, a senior, is three, and Julia Talasko, a junior, is four.

    At first doubles are Gillian Neubert and Danni Dunphy, both juniors. Madison Aldrich, a sophomore, and Cece Combemale, a Pierson ninth grader, play at two, and Sarah Becker and Margaux Eckert, both seniors, are the third team.

    Ricki Slater, a senior who had played first doubles, and Phoebe Gianis, another senior, who played third singles, are sidelined by injuries.

    Others on the squad, Kennedy said, are Cosima Schelfhout, a junior, Melanie Schwagerl, a junior, Sabrina Re, a ninth grader, Maxine DeHavenon, a sophomore, Isabella Facendola, a senior, and Evan Johnson, a freshman.

    John McGeehan, the girls swimming team’s coach, was quite pleased to hear his team was in first place as of Tuesday.

    “We did lose some strong swimmers to graduation, so I thought this year we might not be quite as strong, but I have the largest team I ever have had — 21 girls, a couple of whom have never swum competitively before.”

    East Hampton defeated Hauppauge at the Y.M.C.A. East Hampton RECenter pool Friday, and was to have had a meet here with Huntington Tuesday.

    Marina Preiss, a junior all-state swimmer, in the 50 and 100-yard freestyle races, and Lydia Florio, a senior, who has come close to doing a county-qualifying time in the breaststroke, are leading the team, which includes, among other competitive swimmers, Laura Gundersen, a senior, Lindsey Stevens, a junior, Shannon Ryan, a junior, and Marikate Ryan, an eighth grader.

    And last, but not least, field hockey. Becky Schwartz, the team’s coach, was happy to report during halftime of Saturday’s football game that her charges had that morning shut out William Floyd 4-0 behind Sophia DePasquale’s “second or third hat trick of the season.” Casey Waleko, a junior, as is DePasquale, also had a goal that day. Leanella Acevedo, the sophomore goalie, “only touched the ball five times,” Schwartz added.

    The win improved East Hampton to 5-4 in league play. The top six, said Schwartz, are to go to the playoffs.