Kathy McGeehan, who coaches East Hampton High’s girls volleyball team, said this week that Raya O’Neal has been picked by the Garden Empire Volleyball Association to play in a high performance tournament in Phoenix, Ariz., at the end of this month.

    O’Neal, who is East Hampton’s setter, was picked following invitational tryouts at a G.E.V.A. camp over the weekend. Christina Cangiolosi, a middle blocker with East Hampton’s junior varsity team last fall, also attended the camp. Melanie Mackin, an outside hitter on the varsity, and her middle hitter teammate, Sarah Johnson, are to attend G.E.V.A. tryouts this weekend.    

In other local volleyball news, Summer Foley and Kim Valverde placed third in the women’s A bracket of a G.E.V.A. beach volleyball tournament at Babylon’s Cedar Beach last weekend, and the 14-and-under girls bracket was won by East Hampton’s Jenna and Lydia Budd, who defeated fellow Bonackers Katie Brierley and Carley Seekamp in the final. Moreover, Matt Lownes and Nick West placed second in the 16-and-under coed division. A G.E.V.A. beach volleyball clinic is to be held at Long Beach on July 24. More information is available through www.geva.org.

June 5, 1986

    In an extremely eventful week for the East Hampton High School boys tennis team, the Bonackers clinched the first outright League Seven championship the school has ever enjoyed with a 6-1 victory over Mercy here on May 27; dominated the Conference Four tournament, which ended with all-East Hampton finals in singles and doubles, and on Tuesday defeated Commack South 5-2 in the first round of the Suffolk County team tournament.

    . . . East Hampton wound up with a 13-1 record in League Seven, its only loss in league play coming to Southampton. The team’s overall record as of Tuesday was 17-2. The league championship was the first East Hampton has won since 1976, the first year of John Goodman’s tenure as coach. “We tied Miller Place for the championship in ’76,” said Goodman, “but I think I’m right in saying that we’ve never won it outright before.”

June 12, 1986

    The windswept moorlands of the Shinnecock Hills Golf Club, whose gabled clubhouse is the oldest in America, and on whose rolling terrain the second United States Open was played in pastoral seclusion, will be unveiled for all the world to see next week as the United States Golf Association returns after a 90-year absence.

    How will the powerful pros do on these rather wild links in whose calf-high rough can be found hudsonia, blue flag iris, bearberry, and rosa rugosa? It all depends apparently on whether the wind blows and from which direction.

—

    “I’m looking forward to it,” Alex White, Shinnecock’s superintendent, said of the Open. “It’s something that is a once-in-a-lifetime thing. Ninety years ago was the last time they played it here, you know. It was on a short course. There were only a few dozen pros in the entire country then, and there were just the members as spectators.”

    Would he be greeting the masses of spectators next week? “No, they’ll fend for themselves. The clubhouse will be for members only; the professionals will use the locker rooms.”

    The best place to watch the tournament would be in front of one’s TV set, Mr. White said in parting.

June 19, 1986

    Claude Beudert saw God the other day. He saw him up close, on the 14th tee of the Shinnecock Hills Golf Club course, the scene this week of the U.S. Open. Claude and I had been ambling over the back nine late Saturday afternoon in between downpours, figuring we were the only ones crazy enough to be out there, when, from the 12th green we saw a clutch of color move off from the 13th tee.

    The small gathering had a certain purposefulness to it, and immediately we began to wonder who the golfer, or golfers, might be. “It was the person I hoped it was,” said Beudert a day later, still somewhat stunned that he had been for five holes in the company of Jack Nicklaus, “the greatest golfer of all time.”

    “It’s like watching God,” said the East Hampton High School teacher and coach.

    “Like watching God in the rain,” I said, as we moved along, sodden, under a large Wimbledon umbrella.

—

    Another banner year in sports was celebrated at an awards dinner at East Hampton High School on June 11. The 600-student school, which continues to experience an impressive 60 percent turnout for the 19 varsity sports it offers, enjoyed league championships during the past school year in girls tennis, coached by Jim Nicoletti, boys basketball, coached by Ed Petrie, wrestling, coached by Jim Stewart, and boys tennis, coached by John Goodman.

—

    “I was in total control,” Raymond Floyd, the winner of the U.S. Open played this past week at the Shinnecock Hills Golf Club, said. “I was walking at a speed in sync with my golf swing. I felt together. I was never upset, and I never let anything bother me. I stuck to my game plan and didn’t deviate.”

June 26, 1986

    Paul Hamilton of Coram won the Race Against Drug Abuse five-kilometer road race in Sag Harbor Saturday in 16 minutes and 10 seconds, edging Dr. Robert Semlear of Sag Harbor, the runner-up, in 16:47.

Thursday, July 7

WOMEN’S SLOW-PITCH, Men at Work vs. P.B.A., 6:45 p.m., and Bostwick’s vs. Groundworks, 8, Terry King ball field, Abraham’s Path, Amagansett.

Friday, July 8

MEN’S SLOW-PITCH, Schenck Fuels vs. Round Swamp Farm, 7:30 p.m., and Stephen Hand’s Equipment vs. Uihlein’s, 8:30, Terry King ball field, Abraham’s Path, Amagansett.

Sunday, July 10

TRIATHLONING, Mighty North Fork, 500-meter swim, 8-mile bike, and 3.5-mile run, Cedar Beach, Southold, 6:50 a.m.

Monday, July 11

LACROSSE, Rusty Red weeklong camp for 6-through-14-year-old boys and girls begins, East Hampton High School, 8:30 a.m.

MEN’S SLOW-PITCH, Bono Plumbing and Heating vs. The Independent, 7:30 p.m., and Round Swamp Farm vs. Schenck Fuels, 8:30, Terry King ball field, Abraham’s Path, Amagansett.

Tuesday, July 12

WOMEN’S SLOW-PITCH, P.B.A. vs. Groundworks, 6:45 p.m., and Grazina Orthodontics vs. Men At Work, 8, Terry King ball field, Abraham’s Path, Amagansett.

Wednesday, July 13

MEN’S SLOW-PITCH, Schenck Fuels vs. The Independent, 7:30 p.m., and Bono Plumbing and Heating vs. Uihlein’s, 8:30, Terry King ball field, Abraham’s Path, Amagansett.

Thursday, June 30

LITTLE LEAGUE, East Hampton all-stars vs. team to be determined, site to be determined, 5:45 p.m.

WOMEN’S SLOW-PITCH, Men at Work vs. Bostwick’s, 6:45 p.m., and Police Benevolent Association vs. Grazina Orthodontics, 8, Terry King ball field, Abraham’s Path, Amagansett.

Saturday, July 2

SWIMMING, Swim Across America’s Hamptons Open-Water Swim, Fresh Pond Beach, Fresh Pond Road, Amagansett, 7 a.m.

LITTLE LEAGUE, District 36 double-elimination tournament continues, teams and sites yet to be determined, 10 a.m.

Sunday, July 3

RUNNING, Southampton Rotary Club’s Firecracker 8K, Lake Agawam Park, Southampton, 8:30 a.m.

Tuesday, July 5

LITTLE LEAGUE, District 36 tournament continues, teams and sites yet to be determined, 5:45 p.m.

WOMEN’S SLOW-PITCH, Grazina Orthodontics vs. Bostwick’s, 6:45 p.m., and Groundworks vs. Men at Work, 8, Terry King ball field, Abraham’s Path, Amagansett.

Wednesday, July 6

MEN’S SLOW-PITCH, Round Swamp Farm vs. The Independent, 7:30 p.m., and Uihlein’s vs. Bono Plumbing and Heating, 8:30, Terry King ball field, Abraham’s Path, Amagansett.

   First, a correction: It was Avery Balnis who was the Force’s winning pitcher in a two-game sweep of the Sunbirds in the Little League softball “world series,” not Avery Fenelon, as was mistakenly reported last week.

As for the boys, East Hampton’s 11-and-12-year-old all-star team was to have begun the District 36 playoffs here with Westhampton Beach Tuesday. The young Bonackers are to play today as well, at 5:45 p.m., though as of press time the site was not known.

The district’s double-elimination tournament continues Saturday at 10 a.m. Games are also scheduled for Tuesday, next Thursday, July 9, July 12, and July 14 (the championship game).

    The following were the spring teams’ most valuable players at East Hampton High School — Dylan Carroza, baseball; Brendan Damm, boys lacrosse; Allison Charde, girls lacrosse; Kathryn Hess, softball; Milton Farez, boys tennis; Ashley West, girls track, and Taylor Harned, boys track.

    Of Carroza, his coach, Ed Bahns, said in the recent athletic awards dinner program devoted to the seniors’ accomplishments: “He enjoyed a very successful four-year run on the varsity level, starting for the Bonackers on the mound every year. Using pinpoint control and a change of speed, he showed that he was a true student of pitching every time he took the ball. Dylan, who was an accomplished pitcher even as a freshman, never took his skills for granted, and constantly worked during the off-season to improve. As a senior, he became the first Bonacker to be named as an all-county player in four seasons.”

    Mike Vitulli said of Damm, “Brendan is a versatile midfielder who excelled on offense as well as defense. He was our offensive leader, our top defensive midfielder, and our main face-off man. He was one of our captains, who led by example, and gave 100 percent effort in all of our games and practices. He scored a team-high 40 goals and had 17 assists this season. He received all-county honors for the second year in a row, and finished his career seventh all-time in East Hampton scoring history.”

    Of Harned, Chris Reich, the head coach of the boys track team, said: “Taylor has been a spring track athlete for three years and unfortunately we’ve only been able to work with him for two of them. Taylor has been the easiest athlete to coach while also producing the greatest gains in achievement. In his last season of spring track Taylor has been named all-county in the discus, placing sixth in Suffolk County with a throw of 144 feet 4 inches. Taylor also competed in the division championship in the discus, though in dual meets he also competed in the high jump and pole vault. Taylor has molded himself into a great multi-event athlete while also excelling in the classroom.”

    In other spring awards, the following were named most-improved: Ryan Joudeh and Cameron Yusko, baseball; Skylar Loesch, boys lacrosse; Amanda Thompson, softball; Daniel Ruggiero, boys tennis; Lena Vergnes, girls track, and Keaton Crozier and Jacob Hands, boys track.

    Coaches awards went to: Frank Grande, baseball; Eric Tortorella, boys lacrosse; Alex Fulham and Samantha Dombkowski, girls lacrosse; Meghan Hess, softball; Zachary Newburger, boys tennis, and Saoirse McKeon, girls track.

Shelter Island 10K

    Joan Benoit Samuelson, Bill Rodgers, Kim Jones, and Jon Sinclair are expected to return to Shelter Island Saturday for the 32nd Shelter Island 10K, which is to start in front of the high school at 5:30 p.m.

    Last year, the Ethiopian-born Alene Reta ran the 6.2-mile road course in a record-breaking 28 minutes and 40 seconds, besting the mark he set there in 2007 by one second, and winning $3,000 all told. Anzhelika Averkova’s 34:49 in the women’s masters division was also a record.

    Samuelson, the 1984 Olympic marathon gold medal winner, and Carmen Ayala-Troncoso of Austin, Tex., contested a Golden Girls Gallop in 2010, with the 51-year-old Ayala-Troncoso running a 37:38 and the 53-year-old Samuelson a 37:44, times that Barbara Gubbins thought were “probably in the top 10 worldwide for women over 50.”

Largest Swim Lesson

    The Y.M.C.A. East Hampton RECenter’s pool was pretty much filled from 11 a.m. to noon Tuesday with participants in “the world’s largest swimming lesson,” a worldwide effort, Tom Cohill, the Y’s aquatics director, said, to “promote swimming and water safety.”

    Diane O’Donnell, who coaches East Hampton High School’s girls track team, expects to take Ashley West, a versatile junior runner, and Lena Vergnes, a sophomore racewalker who is closing in on Kathy Piacentine’s record in that event, to the state qualifier meet that’s to be held tomorrow and Saturday at Port Jefferson High School.

“Lena was our sole scorer in the division meet,” O’Donnell reported Friday, “placing fourth over all in 7:45.09.”

O’Donnell added that she thought Vergnes would break Piacentine’s school record of 7:34 in the 1,500-meter event next season.

West placed ninth in the division meet in the 800 in a personal best 2:24.73, bettering the school record she set earlier this season “by 100ths of a second.”

West also ran in the division 200, finishing third in her heat, in a personal best 26.77, but did not make the final.

“She’s very serious about running,” O’Donnell said of West, who replaced Saiorse McKeon as the anchor of East Hampton’s 4-by-100 relay team in the division meet.

Asked why West hadn’t run the 400 this season, O’Donnell said, “I think it was because she wanted to break Danielle Ficeto’s record in the 800. . . . She’s a long-distance runner who likes the sprints, but she’s not a true sprinter. She’s more of a builder, a closer.”

East Hampton’s coach added that “her best chance to get to the states will be in cross-country. She’s so strong. The track races are too short for her.”

West, in the 800, Vergnes, in the racewalk, Saiorse McKeon, in the shot-put, and Hannah Jacobs, in the discus, have been named to the all-league team, O’Donnell said.

    Annette MacNiven of Wainscott recently placed third in her 50-to-54-year-old age group, and thus was one of seven Americans to mount the International Triathlon Union’s podium in Extremadura, Spain, following the Olympic governing body’s world championships, which comprised a .6-mile lake swim, a 12.4-mile mountain bicycle leg, and a 6K (3.7 miles) overland run.

    MacNiven was among the first to the swim’s start line but was “pushed out of the way by the Spaniards,” one of whom wound up placing second to MacNiven’s impossible-to-catch rival, Beverly Enslow of Metamora, Ill.

    “She’s my idol,” MacNiven said of Enslow, whose husband is a bicycle mechanic with an international reputation. “When I saw her crying before the race began, I asked her, ‘Are you happy . . . are you sad?’ ”

    “ ‘No, no,’ she said, ‘I’m scared.’ Well, I figured if Beverly was scared, I should be too. She said she was scared because of the pressure she felt being number one. When the race began — they started us in waves three minutes apart — she went from crying to flying! And I was left flailing and hyperventilating in her wake!”

As for swimming, MacNiven, who grew up in New Mexico, said that, in contrast to the East Hampton children she coaches at the Y.M.C.A. East Hampton RECenter, “I was never used to being among 40 kids swimming in two lanes. I’m a pretty good swimmer now, but I still get panic attacks.”

MacNiven gave it her all on the bike leg, but was passed during the course of it by a Spaniard. As she went out on the run, her husband, Tom, said, “You can run her down — she’s only two minutes ahead of you.”

“But at that point,” she said, “my calves were cramping. I was happy to finish third and to be one of 7 among the 60 Americans who made the podium.”

Enslow’s winning age-group time was 2 hours, 10 minutes, and 8 seconds. MacNiven’s time was 2:30:33 (20:51 swim, 1:33 bike, and 33:32 run, with 3:10 spent in the transition area).

“The good news,” the 53-year-old MacNiven said, “is that I’ll be racing as a 54-year-old all next year in the 55-to-59 division. . . . Since you race the age you’ll be on Dec. 31, and since my birthday is Dec. 31, it’s as good as it gets. . . . But I’ll never shake Beverly.”

MacNiven has been competing in off-road races for the past 20 years, in recent years at a very high level.

    That her eldest son, Casey, is a part-time bike mechanic in Austin, Tex., pleases her immensely. “I’ve got a pretty sweet bike made for me and ordered a year ago coming,” she said. “I’ve asked him about getting the bigger 29-inch wheel that everybody’s using. The traditional wheel is 26 inches, but everybody’s rocking with these 29-inchers. But he told me [she’s 5 feet 2 inches tall] I’m too small, that they haven’t figured out the geometry yet. So, I guess I’ll have to settle.”

May 1, 1986

    Greg Schiavoni, Pierson High School’s junior right-hander, set a school strikeout record in Pierson’s 9-1 victory over Shelter Island on Monday. Schiavoni, who gave up three hits, struck out 16, eclipsing the former record of 15 jointly held by Ricky Kraft and Bob DePetris.

May 15, 1986

    The United States Open, which, tennis players notwithstanding, needs no further qualification among golfers, is, after having been bally-hooed here the past four years, about to descend on the windswept moorlands of Shinnecock Hills, a prospect that, for the local resident, both fascinates and repels.

    What fascinates is the chance that the rolling expanse of narrow fairways and high rough of the Shinnecock Hills Golf Club, which slopes down toward Peconic Bay from a Stanford White Shingle Style clubhouse commanding views of bay and ocean, will, with Aeolus’s help, tax its cool professional challengers.

    What may repel is the associated traffic. Many South Fork inhabitants do not share the United States Golf Association’s enthusiasm for the tournament as a vehicle to boost tourism, although for the most part the tourist industry here has welcomed the Open’s coming. Its shots, after all, will be heard and seen around the world.

May 22, 1986

    The checkered flag may not wave this season at the Bridgehampton Race Circuit, whose control is at the moment embroiled in litigation involving two groups of sports car racing enthusiasts.

    . . . While club races aren’t being permitted, said Lawrence Auriana, president of the Bridgehampton Road Races Corporation board of directors, the corporation is allowing certain driving schools to operate at “The Bridge,” from time to time. Skip Barber is holding a sports car driving school there this week, ending today, and an “anti-terrorist” driving school is scheduled to use the 2.85-mile loop in the near future.

—

    Fifteen golfers, six of them with Southampton connections, made the cut in a 36-hole local qualifier for the United States Open held at the Noyac Golf and Country Club and Southampton Golf Club last Thursday.

    Of the 15 whose scores were the best among 155 carded that day, Bruce Zabriski, a Southampton professional who plays on the European tour, was the medalist, with a two-under-par 70 at Noyac, and a one-over-par 71 at Southampton. John Adams, a former assistant of Southampton’s head pro, Bob Joyce, who has played on the Professional Golf Association tour the past nine years, was the runner-up at 71-71.

    . . . “Everybody made it but me,” joked Joyce, when asked how he had done on Thursday. “I scored 80 and 80 — very consistent. Bad putting. The greens were fast, but true.”

May 29, 1986

    The East Hampton High School baseball team, runner-up to Hampton Bays in League VII, has for the second straight year made it into the Suffolk County playoffs.

    In games played during the week, East Hampton defeated Hampton Bays 10-5 on May 21. . . . It was only the second time Hampton Bays has been defeated this season.

    Pat Bistrian pitched that day, evening his record at 4-4. A double play in the first inning, and a triple play — the first Jim Nicoletti, East Hampton’s coach, can remember one of his teams achieving — in the sixth greatly helped the Bonac cause.

    . . . The triple play went into the scorebook as 4-6-3-2-5-1. Nicoletti said it couldn’t have come at a better time.

—

    A Guinness record of 13 hours of continuous Ultimate disc play was set last Thursday by Southampton Ultimate Frisbee for Educational Recreation (SUFFER), an Ultimate club at Southampton College. SUFFER already holds the Wham-O record of 36 continuous hours.

—

    East Hampton Town residents will be able to travel daily on the Long Island Rail Road to and from the U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills. Marina Van, the East Hampton Chamber of Commerce’s executive director, said, “The way it was, you could get there from here, but you couldn’t get back. The new schedule will enable people in East Hampton Town to take the train to and from the Open each day.”