For those who doubted a seventh grader could compete at the varsity level, Zoey Falkenhan continues to provide proof that she belongs. The 11-year-old won the girls cross-country meet against Rocky Point last week, finishing East Hampton’s 2.5-mile course in 15:18. Just a few days later, she placed third at the Suffolk Officials Invitational at Sunken Meadow State Park Saturday, finishing the 5K course in 20:20.7.
Falkenhan brings speed and excitement to a Bonac team that is running competitively once again, now that it has five athletes at every starting line. Any fewer, and they cannot record a team score.
“She is a phenomenal runner and she gets better every race. She doesn’t hold anything back,” said Diane O’Donnell, the head coach. “We had six girls on the team last year, but two of them were always injured, every time we had a meet, so I never put more than four girls on the line. This has been a much happier season for everybody concerned. We’ll have a much improved record from last year.”
Laura Martinez, the team captain, took second place against Rocky Point, finishing in 15:36, and finished sixth at Sunken Meadow with a time of 20:52.4. According to Tully speed ratings, Martinez is one of the top five individual runners in Suffolk County Class B. She and Falkenhan have a real shot at competing at the state level this year.
On the boys’ side, Jasper Samuelson continues to dominate. One of the top 50 cross-country runners on Long Island, he won the boys meet against Rocky Point in 13:36, in spite of losing a week of training to illness. Watts Comly-Bolick took second in 13:54. Samuelson placed fourth at the Suffolk Officials Invitational, finishing the race in 17:33.6. He’ll look to improve that time at the division championship, county championship, and state qualifiers, which are all at Sunken Meadow.
“Last year he ran a 17:10 at the Meadow and didn’t qualify for the states,” said Kevin Barry, the head coach. “I looked back over 25 years in Class B and that’s never happened before. Usually that goes. He missed by a second or two to go to states, so that’s a huge motivation. He did miss about eight days of training and lost probably 10 percent of his fitness, but he’s actually a little bit ahead of last year at this point. Saturday’s performance at the Meadow puts him right back as one of the top runners in the county.”
Comly-Bolick skipped the invitational at Sunken Meadow as a precaution after getting a little banged up in the gym the day before, but Coach Barry says his workouts have been great recently and he could also qualify for states. Barry plans to increase the mileage for both runners over the next few weeks before tapering for what looks to be a series of very exciting meets — the Suffolk County Cross-Country Division Championship on Oct. 27, followed by the Suffolk County Championships and State Qualifiers on Nov. 5.
