Meredith Spolarich, a Pierson (Sag Harbor) High School senior competing for East Hampton High School’s girls track-and-field team, won the Suffolk County Class B pentathlon championship last Thursday in Kings Park on the strength of first-place finishes in the high jump, long jump, and shot-put, and second-place finishes in the 100-meter high hurdles and 800 meters, good for 2,615 points in all.
It was only the fourth time she’d ever run the 100-meter high hurdles. Her results in the shot-put (28 feet 9 and 3/4 inches), high jump (4 feet 11 and 3/4 inches), and long jump (15 feet 8 and 1/4 inches) were either season bests or personal records.
Spolarich “is so strong with just about everything she does,” Yani Cuesta, her coach, said by phone on Monday. “She’s one of those old-school, all-around athletes. There are so few of those around anymore.”
As of press time, Spolarich was expected to be a top-five seed in the pentathlon at the New York State qualifying meet, to be held today and tomorrow at Comsewogue High School.
One of her East Hampton teammates, Leslie Samuel of Bridgehampton High School, will also be moving on to that meet after a first-place finish in the long jump (17 feet 4 inches) and a second in the 200 meters in 25.83 seconds.
The Bonac tracksters scored 40 points, good for fifth place out of a field of 14 teams, behind Sayville, East Islip, Westhampton Beach, and Islip, and besting last year’s 10th-place showing. Ryleigh O’Donnell was fourth in the 400 meters in 61.46, and Kaili Moore took third in the shot-put with a throw of 30 feet and one-quarter inch.
Bonac’s sprint medley relay squad of Spolarich, Samuel, O’Donnell, and Sam Ruano is raising money for a trip to the Nike Outdoor Nationals in Eugene, Ore., on June 15 and 16. Cuesta called it a “once-in-a-lifetime trip” in her 18 years of coaching. “We don’t want money to be the reason they don’t compete.”
The team welcomes donations through the East Hampton High School athletics office at 631-329-4143.
