Sports

Cold and wind greeted the 45 participants of the 93rd Montauk Christmas Bird Count on Saturday, but the rough conditions didn’t stop them from tallying 131 different species, the highest total for the count in the last 10 years.

Twenty or so fifth and sixth-grade boys basketball players here were treated to an hourlong clinic by Frank Alagia, a Frances Pomeroy Naismith Award-winning guard when he was at St. John’s.

Eighty young Y.M.C.A. East Hampton RECenter Hurricane swimmers went to the three-day Cross Island and Flushing Y holiday invitational meet at the Nassau Aquatic Center, and their performances were impressive.

The East Hampton High School wrestling team enjoyed a lopsided win over Deer Park, the boys swimming team evened its league record by defeating Sayville-Bayport, and the girls winter track 4-by-400-meter relay team set a school record in that event by almost 10 seconds at a crossover meet at Suffolk Community College-Brentwood.

Montauk’s young Pleiades rugby 7s side that Kevin Bunce Sr. coaches did itself proud in the Thanksgiving 7s tournament on Randalls Island, sweeping through the social division without a loss.

East Hampton High’s wrestling team took four of five matches at Doc Fallot, the Southampton Mariners swept to the Kendall Madison championship, and the Bonac girls hoopsters finally won one.

Ellen Cooper, Kathy McGeehan, and Sandy Vorpahl — all of them East Hampton High School Hall of Fame members — are searching through old yearbooks and making phone calls to ascertain who among the school’s female athletes predating 1976 are worthy of being considered by the Hall of Fame committee.

“A couple of seconds is like a lifetime,” Jane Brierley said the other day about the breaststroke, her strongest event and the one she recently parlayed into a state championship in Rochester.

Soccer: the beautiful game. In the last two weeks, the World Cup settled over the East End like a butter pat on an English muffin, filling every nook and cranny. Stressed-out referees, solely responsible for maintaining order amid complete emotion and chaos, tatted-up players (not Morocco!), and grass (yes, grass, not turf!) have become a fixture on screens from Southampton to Montauk.

For the first time in two decades, East Hampton High’s wrestling team was a runner-up Saturday in its Frank (Sprig) Gardner invitational tournament, close behind the favorite, Ward Melville.

East Hampton’s boys basketball team is to play host to the revived Kendall Madison Foundation Tip-Off tournament here this weekend.

Sas Peters of Amagansett won his sixth major Ultimate Disc championship — his second as an over-50 great grandmaster — in the Sarasota Sunset tournament, “the most prestigious of the fall season,” last month.

To borrow a phrase from the game of baseball, the fishing season is now in the bottom of the ninth inning. Striped bass season concludes Dec. 15, blackfish season comes to an end seven days later, and Dec. 31 is the final day to retain black sea bass.

Runners, especially those who had been confronted with strong winds and a deluge 11 days before at the Dock Race, couldn’t have asked for better conditions in which to run the East Hampton Town Recreation Department’s 3 and 6-mile Turkey Trots on Thanksgiving Day in Montauk.

East Hampton High’s wrestling program, which was on the ropes not all that long ago, continues to grow. The team’s coach, Ethan Mitchell, who is in his second year, said over the weekend that he has 50 out for the squad, a gratifying number, probably unparalleled in recent times.

Dan White, East Hampton High's boys basketball coach, said the future looks promising for his team, which has three returning seniors.

A trip on the Cross Sound Ferry's Cape Henlopen brings to mind the ship's storied history. The humble ferry boat of today participated in the historic invasion of Normandy on D-Day in World War II, dropping off 200 men and 70 vehicles of the 29th Infantry Division.

When the Ross School’s student-athletes convened for the fall athletic awards ceremony on Nov. 9, they were in for a surprise: the debut of the school’s official mascot, the Ross Raven, in a sleek, brand-new costume, who bounded into the gymnasium with high energy and high-fives all around.

A rundown of the honors bestowed upon East Hampton High School’s student-athletes this week.

After a mixed bag of a season, I happily climbed aboard the Elizabeth II, a charter boat out of the Montauk Marine Basin, for a trip for cod and bass, both of which I latched into within minutes.

Two East Hamptoners report on their experiences at the New York City Marathon.

Amanda Calabrese, who joined East Hampton’s junior lifeguard program at the age of 7, and who is 25 and a resident of San Francisco now, continues to excel in lifeguarding competitions.

Strong winds and a deluge about five minutes into the race did not deter 200 or so contestants — a field that included runners, bicyclists, scooters, and strollers — from traversing on Sunday morning the 3.3 miles that separate Montauk’s Post Office from George Watson’s Dock bar and restaurant.

About 25 years ago, I recall jumping aboard the Viking Starship for the five-hour ride to Nomans (both the island and the area near Cuttyhunk) to target blackfish. Those trips were extremely popular, and one could retain 10 fish over 14 inches in length. Most of the time, the fishing was off-the-charts good.

The Shelter Island and Ross School girls volleyball teams contended for the county (and Long Island) Class D championship at East Hampton High School on Nov. 7, with the Islanders, as they did last year, coming out on top.

Dylan Cashin, an East Hampton High School junior who led the girls cross-country team to a league championship this season, qualified to compete in the coming state meet by finishing fifth in the county Class B 5K at Sunken Meadow State Park Friday.

The bay scallop season in waters under the East Hampton Town Trustees’ jurisdiction will open on Sunday at sunrise. Residents holding a town shellfish permit can continue to harvest them until sunset on March 31.

Joy, and then heartache! With less than a minute to go in Wednesday's Class C Long Island field hockey championship, Sag Harbor had its last chance to tie the game against Carle Place, and it appeared that it did, until the referee annulled the goal by the Whalers' Meredith Spolarich. The Frogs won 2-1.

Peter Ciaccia, who organized and directed New York Road Runner events for 20 years, including the TCS New York City Marathon that is to be run throughout the city’s five boroughs Sunday, will have two goals in mind on the Verrazano Bridge: crossing the 26.2-mile race’s finish line, and raising as much money as he can through his Need 2 Feed gofundme effort so that the Montauk Food Pantry can continue to feed more than 200 needy families and homebound people in that hamlet.

McMahon’s won its third straight East Hampton Town men’s slow-pitch softball league championship at the Terry King ball field in Amagansett on Oct. 25, besting Sand & Sea Construction 17-10, thus winning the best-of-five final series three games to one.