East Hampton’s boys track team has yet to lose a meet, improving its record to 4-0 with a massive 90-36 win over Westhampton Beach at home last week. If it keeps the momentum going, there’s talk Bonac could be league champions for the first time since 2005. Sean Knight, the head coach, called the Bonackers’ victory over the Hurricanes “a total team win and another huge step forward in an incredible season.”
Marcus Oransky broke 18 seconds in the 110-meter high hurdles for the first time, winning the event with a 17.5. He also won the 400-meter intermediate hurdles.
Liam Knight won the 100 meters in 11.6. Hudson Goulart came up big in the 200 meters and the high jump, winning both events in 23.1 seconds and 5 feet, 6 inches, respectively. Emmett Schumann, Sean Perez, and Justin Herrera swept the 400-meter race.
In the distance events, Jasper Samuelson won the 800 meters with a lightning-fast 2:03. That was a personal record for him.
Watts Comly-Bolick had a two-second personal best in the 1,600 meters, winning that race in 4:50.2. Andrew Perez ran a speedy 5:06 and Juan Torres ran a solid 5:13. Jatniel Gonzalez won the 3,200 meters with a personal best time of 11:18.
In the field events, Franco Palombino dominated, winning both the shot-put and discus. Adrian Bello hit 40 feet in the triple jump, the longest jump the Bonackers have seen in years.
Kevin Barry, who coaches the boys indoor track and cross-country teams and coached the 2005 league champs with Knight, thinks this year’s team is comparable and might have even more depth. He believes the addition of Thomas Brierley as an assistant coach this year has been a tremendous asset.
“I can’t remember the last time they had four wins. [Coaches] Davin [Johnson] and Sean [Knight] changed the atmosphere here three years ago, and made track fun again. Thomas [Brierley] was almost the key,” he said. “Sean’s got 40 athletes on the team and they’re all into it. They all care about each other; they show up to practice every single day. Their last meet is going to be fun. West Islip is going to be undefeated and East Hampton is going to be undefeated. It’s going be here at home.”
Coach Knight also sees the resemblance to that 2005 team. “It’s very close. That was a very well-rounded team,” he said. “And now we have a 40-foot jumper with Adrian. Our throwers are getting better. It’s all coming along.”
His son, Liam Knight, a senior, thinks they can win out for the rest of the season. When asked if anyone can beat Bonac this year, the younger Knight replied, “Hopefully not. We have a couple more meets left so we’re just going to keep trying our best and hope all goes well.”
Knight is part of the 4-by-400 relay team that’s trying to break the school record of 3:28.40 set by his dad, Brandon Hayes, Ryan Borowsky, and Keith Brabant back in 1997. Knight and his teammates Goulart, Samuelson, and Schumann learned a lot at the Penn Relays last month, where they finished in 3:32.46.
“I think we definitely learned we need to work on our relay specifics more — handoffs and getting out off the line and our order more specifically because that’s where we struggled,” Samuelson, a sophomore, said. “But, if we improve on that we can definitely get a lot faster.”
Goulart, a junior, believes the record is going down. “We’re going to break the school record. Mark my words. This season. And then we’re going to break it again next season.”
Last weekend at St. Anthony’s High School in Huntington, the boys tested their strength against some of the top athletes around with the relays in focus once again.
Coach Knight called the 4-by-800 relay team one of the biggest highlights of the meet. The team took fourth place with an 8:32.72, which ranks among the top 50 times in New York State this season. Knight led off with a 2:11.46. Schumann, a freshman, followed at 2:12.32. Perez, a senior, ran a speedy 2:07.89, before handing off to Samuelson, who brought it home with a blazing-hot anchor leg of 2:01.08.
In the shorter events, Aaron Torres-Garcia ran the 200 meters in 24.48. That was his best fully automatic timing (F.A.T.) time of the season. Herrera also had a strong race, finishing in 25.13.
In the 400 meters, Knight ran his best F.A.T. time of the season with a 51.71.
Goulart put up personal-best F.A.T. times in both races, with a 23.31 in the 200 meters and a 52.83 in the 400 meters.
In the 800 meters, Perez ran a personal best time of 2:04.88.
In the hurdles, Oransky ran his best times in two events: 17.51 in the 110-meter high hurdles and 61.43 in the 400-meter intermediate hurdles.
Samuelson and Comly-Bolick smoked the 1,600 meters with a 4:35.60 and 4:50.32, respectively.
Also seen around the East Hampton High School track this week was Ryan Fowkes, class of 2019, who placed third in the Olympic Development Men’s Mile Run Elite at the Penn Relays on April 25 with a 3:59.81.
“I felt really good about it. It was a super fun experience to get out there and race in that environment. Penn Relays is probably the biggest domestic meet before you get to the U.S Champs or trials, so there aren’t many places where you get to run in that kind of atmosphere,” Fowkes said at the track on April 28. “To place third was really good. It was a super tactical race where no one really pushed the pace, so everyone in the field was in it with a lap to go. It was super tight margins, so I ended up in third, but only .2 behind the winner and only .05 ahead of fourth.”
Up next, Fowkes is getting ready for the U.S. Outdoor Championships at Icahn Stadium in New York City at the end of July. “It’s not normally in New York, which is really special to have a home race for the U.S. Championships,” Fowkes said. Will that give him a home-field advantage? “I think it should, I think it should,” he added.
