East Hamptoners raced indoors and outdoors last weekend. East Hampton High’s girls and boys winter track teams, both boasting good turnouts, were in crossover meets at Suffolk Community College-Brentwood, the girls on Saturday, the boys on Sunday, with some of the girls turning in particularly strong performances. And on Saturday morning, the 50-year-old Justin Kulchinsky, who was out of action last year with a debilitating back injury, won the Y.M.C.A. East Hampton RECenter 5K at East Hampton’s Main Beach, topping a field of 96 in 16 minutes and 51.53 seconds.
Later that day, at the Mayfair Rocks jewelry store on East Hampton Village’s Main Street that he and his 74-year-old father, Dan (the 5K’s 19th-place finisher) oversee, Kulchinsky said it had been the third win for him in his last six outings.
Nick DeLuca, 25, one of the high school’s winter track coaches, was the 5K’s runner-up, in 19:07.75; Matt Zappoli, 31, a baseball instructor at Hub 44, was third, in 20:14.14; Anthony Daunt, 31, an ultra-race competitor, was fourth, in 20:19.23, and Kevin Weldon, 44, was fifth, in 20:59.93. The women’s winner, and ninth over all, was Sabrina Manglaviti, 39, in 23:16.50. Sharon McCobb, 60, the Old Montauk Athletic Club’s president, was the second female, in 24:18.31, and Brooke Bohnsack, 43, was the third, in 25:04.16.
The turnouts for East Hampton High’s boys and girls winter track teams are perhaps better than ever. Yani Cuesta, the girls coach, said this week that she’s got a roster numbering 26, about evenly divided between East Hampton and Pierson (Sag Harbor) High School students, though many of them are out for the first time. Kevin Barry, the boys coach, has 18.
Concerning Sunday’s boys crossover meet, Barry said that Edmar Gonzalez-Nateras, a junior, chopped nine seconds off his previous-best 1,000 meter time, placing fourth in 2 minutes and 51.2 seconds. “Edmar came right back and set another personal record with his 41.63 in the 300.”
Barry said that Wyatt Smith, also a junior, placed ninth in the high jump at 5 feet; that Benson Edman, a teammate of Smith’s on East Hampton’s boys cross-country team that Barry coached this past fall, was ninth in the 1,600, in 5:03.6, and that Max Bellenoue, a sophomore, placed fourth among the freshmen and sophomores in the 1,600 with a time of 5:27.5. Barry added that Nelvin Suchite won the long jump with a leap of 16 feet 11 1/4 inches.
“A slew of soccer players, Juan Salcedo, Chris Chimbo, Sebastian Farez, and Randy Japa, made their debuts that day in the 55-meter dash and in the 300. They didn’t place, but they performed well,” said the coach.
Reporting on crossover meets held on Saturday and on Dec. 3, Cuesta said, “We’re beyond elated seeing the growth in these young girls in such a short amount of time — we can’t wait for the rest of the season.”
On Saturday, Laura Martinez, Briana Torres, Sara O’Brien, and Ryleigh O’Donnell won the 4-by-800-meter relay in 10:50.27. Another East Hampton 4-by-8 team (Dylan Cashin, Bennett Greene, Melina Sarlo, and Greylynn Guyer) came in second at 10:56.28.
O’Donnell won the 600 in 1:42.51; Cashin was the 1,500 runner-up in 5:06.75; Sarlo was fourth in the shot-put at 28 feet and 3 3/4 inches, a season best, and Sara O’Brien’s personal-record 3:20.25 was good for fifth in the 1,000-meter race.
In the Dec. 3 meet, Cashin won the 3,000 in a time of 11:21.45, with O’Brien second in 11:35.45; Sarlo won the shot-put with a heave of 27-10 1/2, and O’Donnell was third in the 1,000 in 3:13.07.
Besides the above-named, Cuesta’s roster comprises Sam Ruano, Lily Remy, Ali Munoz, Lia Mizrahi, Kiera Martin, Shirley Jiang, Grace Gomolka, Paige Francis, Lara Forteini, Sophia Figueroa, Fio Duran, Harper Craig, Vicky Chen, Nayive Chapa, Angie Castillo, and Lauren Batista Silva.
There are only seven returnees — Cashin, O’Donnell, Sarlo, O’Brien, Ruano, Castillo, and Jiang. “We’ve got a lot of new kids,” said Cuesta, “which is exciting to see.”
Sarlo, Cuesta added, should she get stronger and continue to improve her technique, may break Sarah Van Asco’s indoor shot-put record of 31-9 1/2 this winter, and, she added, one of the 4-by-8 teams ought to break the school record in that event this winter, too.