Erik Engstrom, the 25-year-old former county cross-country champion, topped Dylan Cashin and Ryleigh O’Donnell’s May Day 5K Sunday, crossing the East Hampton Main Beach finish line in 16 minutes and 22.76 seconds, besting a field of 787 finishers.
The race, whose net proceeds are to go to the Tyler Project, which provides mental health counseling and education for youngsters, drew 950 pre-registrants, said Cashin. She ran with members of her and Liam Fowkes’s Bonac Bolts youth track team, which had been training for this race with Cashin, Fowkes, O’Donnell, and Colin Veit at East Hampton High School’s track on Sunday afternoons since March.
The top 10 was rounded out by “Lebron James,” 18, in 16:25.46 (yes, that’s the name he registered under); Neil Falkenhan, 40, in 16:55.50; Luke Malinda, 21, in 17:03.63; Liam Knight, 16, in 17:13.00; Avery Palmer, 22, in 17:44.04; Veit, 17, in 18:07.22; Jasper Samuelson, 13, in 18:28.63; Edward Stern, 59, in 18:36.07; and Matthew Spelman, 34, in 18:52.50.
Durell Godfrey Photo
Sara Pearson, 30, was the women’s winner — and 21st over all — in 20:02.97. Alyssa Bahel, 26, was the female runner-up — and 24th over all — in 20:31.35, with Nicole Furlong, 34, third — and 30th over all — in 21:11.96.
The race was notable too for the fact that five of the Old Montauk Athletic Club’s six 2024 award-winners were involved: Cashin, O’Donnell, and Fowkes, as well as Neil Falkenhan, the third-place finisher, and Peter Ciaccia, who was a 70-plus division runner-up. The five were feted at a dinner on April 30 at the Springs Tavern.
“Dylan and Ryleigh are rock stars,” said East Hampton’s athletic director, Kathy Masterson, who has been impressed by them ever since arriving here almost two years ago, so much so that at her urging News 12 recently named them as its student-athletes of the month.
“They embody all the good things about a small community,” Jenn Fowkes, Liam’s mother, said. “They’re not only great athletes, but they’re always thinking of others, always volunteering — they’ve got more than 1,000 hours of community service between them. . . . They’re incredible.”
Cashin, who’s headed for the Naval Academy, O’Donnell, who will matriculate at Emory University in the fall, and Fowkes, who will study at the University of Wisconsin, were cited on April 30 as OMAC’s youth athletes of the year. Falkenhan was the club’s pick as athlete of the year. Ciaccia, a 70-year-old Montauker — and former New York City Marathon race director — who has raised thousands of dollars for the Montauk Food Pantry since retiring there in 2018, was honored as OMAC’s community service award recipient. Ruby Tyrrell, a member of East Hampton High’s girls swimming team, received the William O’Donnell swimming award.
Paul Hamilton, who helped coach Fowkes in cross-country, said at the dinner that the honoree was “an awesome person. . . . He is a natural athlete, a great team player, and a natural leader. He captained the cross-country and basketball teams in his senior year, was the founder and president of the high school’s Inclusion Club, was a founder of the Bonac Bolts, and was the founder and president of the high school’s Model U.N. . . . He will study special education and rehab psychology at the University of Wisconsin and plans to return to East Hampton after graduation. . . . Wisconsin is lucky to have him, and East Hampton will be all the better for having him come home.”
Falkenhan, a former D-1 lacrosse defenseman at Siena College, has been a frequent Pump-and-Run winner and top-three finisher in road races and triathlons here in recent years. He and his younger brother, Drew, used to be regular winners of the row-bike-run-row Brewathlon in Montauk. (His 5,000-meter ergometer row in 2018’s contest, the last one to be held, was just 18 seconds off the world record in his age group.)
“I did my first triathlon in 2019, the Montauk Sprint,” he said. “I believe I finished 19th. That was my first triathlon ever, and I was hooked. The next time I did it, in 2022, I was third. . . . I’ve been fairly consistent — I’m often second or third. It’s fun going under the radar and surprising people.”
