Diane O’Donnell, who coaches East Hampton High School’s girls cross-country team, had all of her charges running in the Great Bonac 5K in Springs on Labor Day, and, as expected, they did well, though, because of a glitch, Dylan Cashin and Ryleigh O’Donnell’s names didn’t appear on the elitefeats website as the 5K’s top two, which they were.
Cashin and O’Donnell were on a mile-long warm-up at Maidstone Park, intending to get back to Fort Pond Boulevard in time for the start of the 5K, which was to go off 20 minutes after the 10K, when they were mistaken for 10K runners by a race official, and thus sidetracked.
Despite the added mileage Cashin finished way ahead of the 5K field, and then continued on toward Springs-Fireplace Road before doubling back to the finish line area at the Springs Firehouse, where she and O’Donnell met up. They agreed that they had each run at least 3.1 miles, but because they hadn’t crossed the line under the inflated arch, their times weren’t recorded. The elitefeats website shows Neil Falkenhan, 37, the third-place finisher, in 17 minutes and 18.89 seconds, as the winner, with Christian Loja as the runner-up, in 18:48.05. Brayan Rivera, among several strong runners on East Hampton High’s boys cross-country team — the others being Liam Fowkes and Liam Knight — was listed as third, in 19:19.79.
The 5K’s top 10 were rounded out by Hanna Jerome (20:24.06), Hudson Goulart (21:11.26), Jeff Kaplan (22:17.51), Thomas Crouch (22:36.29), Mike Bottini (22:47.75), Dennis Fabiszak (22:50.41), and Robert Bottini (22:53.21).
The female 13-to-19 age group was dominated by O’Donnell’s runners, who included Zion Osei, Emma Tepan, Briana Chavez, Riley Miles, Leah Fromm, Natalie Reininger, and Ivy Zambrano.
“We are feeling that we will be very strong in our new league,” the coach said in a recent email. “We’ll have a solid pack behind Dylan and Ryleigh.” O’Donnell said she would know more “after the Jim Smith invitational at Sunken Meadow,” which is scheduled for Saturday.
The 10K was won in 37:19.73 by Erik Engstrom, 24, East Hampton High’s sole county cross-country champion, who later ran at the University of Massachusetts. Karina Barembayeva, 27, of Southampton, was the runner-up, and the women’s winner, in 44:30.33. Craig Brierley, 57, who coaches the high school’s girls and boys swimming teams, was third.
Elitefeats listed 111 finishers in the 5K and 35 in the 10K.
The races’ net proceeds benefited the Old Montauk Athletic Club and the Springs Fire Department’s scholarship funds.