The Great Bonac 10K and 5K races drew 122 participants to the Springs Firehouse on Labor Day morning, including the 60-year-old Ed Stern, who used to win the 10K regularly when it was based at Ashawagh Hall — and first prize was a pie baked by Roseanne Lebwith.
Stern, who ran a 2:58 marathon at Rockland Lake State Park in the spring — “an elite time for a 60-year-old,” according to Google — finished third in Monday’s 10K, which was won by Erik Engstrom, 27, a county cross-country champion when he was at East Hampton High School. His winning time was 35:08.36. Rebeka Stowe, 35, also of East Hampton, was the runner-up — and the women’s winner — in 36:20.78.
The 10K field — Stern, who lives in Sag Harbor, said it remained his favorite race — numbered 29. There were 93 in the 5K, ranging in age from 4 (Lucy Fabiszak) through 83 (Arthur Nealon).
Neil Falkenhan, 41, won the 5K, in 17:20. Liam Knight, 17, a co-captain of East Hampton High’s boys cross-country team — and a lifeguard who is to represent the United States in an international competition later this year — was the runner-up to Falkenhan in 18:32.94. Lara Jacobs, 26, was third — and the women’s winner — in 18:49.28.
Falkenhan said before the race began that he’s training for the Mighty Man Steve Tarpinian Memorial Triathlon, a benefit for I-Tri that’s to be contested at Noyac’s Long Beach Sunday morning beginning at 6:40.
Knight, who was in the company of his coach, Kevin Barry, and five of his 13 teammates that morning, said that he was looking forward to “a very successful season.” Five of Barry’s charges had broken 5 minutes in the mile. “A lot of teams don’t have that,” said the veteran coach, who has been overseeing hour-and-a-half-long morning practices at East Hampton Village’s Main Beach in the past week.
Besides Knight, other Bonac cross-country runners who showed up at the firehouse Monday were Watts Comly-Bolick and Finn Peterson, sophomores, and three freshmen — Carson Diamond, Chase Bohnsack, and Zimmerman Levy.
Comly-Bolick was the fourth-place finisher in 20:13.15; Diamond was 14th in 24:03.60; Levy was 39th in 28:45.22, and Peterson was 59th in 32:01.27.
Falkenhan’s 10-year-old daughter, Zoey, was sixth in 21:26.85, and thus was the second female finisher.
Max Bellenoue, a senior as is Knight, is the boys cross-country team’s other captain. The team’s third senior, Sean Perez, a former soccer player, is a first-year runner. The rest, Barry said, are underclassmen.
East Hampton High’s girls swimming team’s coach, Craig Brierley, asked on his way to the firehouse’s sign-in table if his team would be good this fall, said with a smile, “Yeah.”
