West and Yusko Won Yuska Awards at Athletics Dinner
Ashley West, who led the girls cross-country team for four years and the spring track team for five, and Cameron Yusko, a three-sport athlete who played on six straight league-champion golf teams and on one Long Island-championship team, were honored at East Hampton High School’s athletic awards dinner June 6 as recipients of the Paul Yuska award given to the senior class’s top athletes.
Moreover, Yusko, who played basketball and baseball as well as golf (finishing with an overall record of 51-5-1), and who won a Channel 12 scholar-athlete award in March and was president of the National Honor Society, is the class’s valedictorian. He will attend Duke University in the fall.
West, who, according to her coaches, Diane O’Donnell and Shani Cuesta, “chased down and reset many of the school’s running records and ran in the state qualifier meet every spring since she was a freshman,” will attend Susquehanna University in Selinsgrove, Pa., in the fall.
During the course of the school year, the boys soccer team won its first county championship since the program was begun here in 1976; the softball team played for a county championship for the first time since 2008; the golf team won its eighth straight league title; the girls soccer and girls lacrosse teams made the playoffs for the first time in those programs’ 10-year histories; the boys swimming team enjoyed its first winning season; Dana Cebulski became the first girls cross-country runner from East Hampton to compete in a state meet, and Marina Preiss competed in a state swimming meet yet again, in the 50 and 100-yard freestyle races.
Besides boys soccer, girls soccer, golf, girls swimming, boys swimming, and softball, other teams to play in the postseason were girls volleyball and boys volleyball. Girls and boys cross-country were said to have experienced “breakthrough” seasons, and boys basketball, while it did not make the playoffs, staged a remarkable comeback, overcoming a 15-point deficit in the final five and a half minutes to defeat Shoreham-Wading River 57-56 on a coast-to-coast buzzer-beating layup by Thomas King.
Other athletic awards dinner honorees were Katla Thorsen, James Budd, and Milton Farez, who won Kendall Madison Foundation four-year college scholarships; Linsey Kromer, who won the Molly Cangiolosi outstanding female student-athlete scholarship; Kathryn Hess and Meghan Dombkowski, who won Mae Ann Buchman outstanding athlete scholarships; West and Ryan Joudeh, who received the athletic director Joe Vas’s awards, and Farez and Nicole Miksinski, who won East Hampton High School Coaches Association scholarships “given to athletes who plan to follow a career in physical education, health, or a related field.”
Moreover, Saoirse McKeon and Trevor Shea received United States Army scholar-athlete awards; Thorsen and Yusko received scholar-athlete plaques; Melanie Mackin and Brock Lownes received the V.F.W. sports and sportsmanship awards given to the junior class’s top athletes, and Budd and Thorsen won scholar-athlete awards from the Suffolk Zone of the New York State Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance.
In addition, Budd and Hess won the Dellacave award for having represented the community in exemplary fashion in athletic competition, and the following received Gold Key awards given by the state public high school athletic association for having lettered in eight varsity and/or junior varsity sports in their sophomore through senior years — Dombkowski, Farez, Deilyn Guzman, Michael Hamilton, Patrick McGuirk, Miksinski, West, and Yusko.
Recipients of the 27 teams’ most-valuable, most-improved, and coach’s awards were:
Adam Cebulski, Michael Peralta, and Mario Zeledon — boys cross-country; Dana Cebulski, Jennifer DiSunno, and Ashley West, girls cross-country; Dombkowski, Kathryn Wood, and Miksinski, field hockey; Budd, Jhovani Hernandez, and Sergio Betancur, football; Ian Lynch, Matthew Griffiths, and Yusko, golf; Mario Olaya, Alexis Serna, and Jerjes Alban, boys soccer; Raphaelle Franey, Rebecca Friedes, and Jessica Gutierrez, girls soccer.
Preiss, Shannon Ryan, and Haley Ryan, girls swimming; Jessica Bono, Phoebe Gianis, and Carrie Sullivan, girls tennis; King, Shea, and McGuirk, boys volleyball; Raya O’Neal, Lydia Budd, and Thorsen, girls volleyball; Dayna Dunlop, Skylar Conklin, and Cole Brauer, fall cheerleading; Andrew Payne, Daniel Ruggiero, and Rick Nardo, bowling; Kim O’Sullivan, Sadie Ward, and Julia Boehm, winter cheerleading; King, Juan Cuevas, and Yusko, boys basketball; Kaelyn Ward, Sarah Johnson, and Miksinski, girls basketball.
Lucas Escobar, Jacob Hands, and Sawyer Bushman, wrestling; Guzman, Cebulski, and Shea, winter boys track; West, Thorsen, and Cebulski, winter girls track; Thomas Brierley, Kyle Sturmann, and Peter Skerys, boys swimming; Ryan Joudeh, James McMullan, and Michael Abreu and Brandon Brophy, baseball; Michael Jara, Alexis Serna, and Ryan Fitzgerald, boys lacrosse; Maggie Pizzo, Katie Brierley and Amanda Seekamp, and Allison Charde, girls lacrosse; Casey Waleko and Hess, and Ali Harned, softball; Andrew Davis, Keith Schad, and Collin Kavanaugh, boys tennis; Cebulski, and Jacob Hands and Hamilton, spring boys track, and West, Hannah Jacobs, and Brauer, spring girls track.