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Good Week for Bonac on Board Runners and the Bonac Varsity

Fri, 05/31/2019 - 15:13
A 600-plus field of mostly junior high students from East Hampton, Montauk, and Springs participated on May 22 in what’s become a rite of spring, the Bonac on Board to Wellness 5K.

It was a good week for East Hampton High School runners: Matt Maya set a school record in Division III’s pentathlon, Ryan Fowkes was the runner-up in the division’s 800 and 1,600-meter races, and Evan Masi, a freshman who won the Bonac on Board to Wellness 5K on May 22, ran the divisional 1,600 in a personal best time of 4 minutes and 45.99 seconds, “about as fast as Ryan ran in his freshman year,” the boys track coach, Ben Turnbull, said in an emailed account.

Shelter Island’s Kal Lewis nosed out Fowkes in the 1,600 — 4:22.63 to 4:23.35, as close a race as they’ve ever had. 

As aforesaid, Fowkes was also the runner-up in the 800, to Miller Place’s Thomas Cirrito. Cirrito, who finished third in the 1,600, won the 800 in 1:56.44. Fowkes’s time was 1:59.40. Turnbull said that Fowkes’s best time in the mile, 4:18.44, was the state’s ninth best.

Maya’s 2,910 points in the pentathlon, good for third, behind Bayport-Blue Point’s Pierre Prendergast (3,101) and Sayville’s Michael McKillop (3,099), earned him a berth in tomorrow and Saturday’s state qualifier meet at Comsewogue High School.

Frank Bellucci placed sixth in the pentathlon, with 2,276 points, putting him in contention for the state qualifier meet, whose seeding meeting was to have been held yesterday. Further, Amari Gordon, a freshman, finished 13th among 20 competitors in the 3,000-meter steeplechase in 11:15.27, the fastest freshman time in all three divisions, Turnbull said.

As for East Hampton’s girls, their coach, Yani Cuesta, said Ava Engstrom had been the runner-up in the 2,000-meter steeplechase (with Bella Tarbet sixth and Emma Hren eighth), that JiJi Kramer had been third (and Mimi Fowkes sixth) in the 1,500-meter racewalk, that Bella Espinoza had been third in the pole vault with a personal-best of 9 feet, and that Grace Brosnan, a ninth grader, had placed fourth in the high jump at 4-10. Courtney Forberg of Harborfields won that event at 5-1; Bayport-Blue Point’s Abby Larsson won the pole vault at 10-0.

East Hampton’s 4-by-800 relay team of Tarbet, Penelope Greene, Hren, and Engstrom placed eighth in that event in a season-best 10:55.79.

The aforementioned Bonac on Board to Wellness 5K, a rite of spring here, attracted a field of more than 600 runners, most of them middle schoolers from East Hampton, Springs, and Montauk.

Masi, who was fifth last year, won the 3.1-miler in 17:16, outlasting Doug Milano, an East Hampton Middle School math teacher and triathlete, by 13 seconds. Milano was last year’s winner, in 17:51.

Masi’s fellow freshman, Amari Gordon, was third, in 17:39, with Eric Perez fourth, in 18:02, and Mikko Negroponte fifth, in 18:27.

The top 10 was rounded out by Josh Vazquez (18:35), Eric Armijos Calle (18:35), Omar Leon (18:51), Luke Castillo (18:56), and Michael Gilbert (19:12).

Rita Greene, an East Hampton Middle School teacher, was the female winner, and 18th over all, in 19:39. Ava Vaccarella, 20th, was the second female, in 20:02, and Alyssa Bahel, last year’s female winner, was third, in 20:31.

A school record in the pentathlon and an epic 1,600

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