Sports

“It’s been a long while since we had more than five all-leaguers,” Coach Ethan Mitchell said in looking through the records of Bonac’s wrestling program, which has been winning more than losing of late.

Dylan Cashin and Liam Fowkes, two East Hampton High School juniors who have been long-distance runners since an early age, are about to launch a youth track club here that they hope will stir up enthusiasm for the sport they love.

Kathy Masterson, who took over from the retiring Joe Vas as the East Hampton School District’s athletic director on July 1, learned last Thursday that she has been named by her 60-plus fellow A.D.s as Suffolk County’s Athletic Director of the Year.

The East Hampton, Bridgehampton, and Pierson High School boys basketball teams continued on playoff paths this past week, with East Hampton defeating Hampton Bays and Sayville, Bridgehampton defeating Greenport and Smithtown Christian, and Pierson defeating Mattituck after having lost to Babylon.

Friday was Spirit Night at Pierson (Sag Harbor) High School, and, fittingly, its basketball teams performed spiritedly in defeating Greenport-Southold and Center Moriches, while the East Hampton girls routed Smithtown Christian.

“This is the highest point total and placement in a league championship in the 18 winters I’ve been coaching,” Yani Cuesta, the veteran coach of East Hampton High’s girls winter track team, said. “So many stepped up to make this happen.”

East Hampton High School’s boys basketball team remained at the top of Division IV as of Monday given its two lopsided wins over Eastport-South Manor and Miller Place last week, and more from the week in sports.

The solitude that Kevin Shattenkirk enjoys at his house in Sag Harbor, on a three-acre parcel mostly surrounded by a nature preserve, is a far cry from his chosen occupation as a professional hockey player.

Looking for a walk and a challenge, I went to the Mulvihill Preserve in Noyac to hunt for wild chickadees. Hard? No. A unique reason to be in the woods? Yes. A winter activity for a winter bird.

Playing aggressively, and with everybody getting into the scoring act, the East Hampton High School boys basketball team took it to the Mount Sinai Mustangs in the early going of their clash here on Jan. 10, but ended up losing to the visitors by 5 points. Two days later, they redeemed themselves with a 60-57 win at Bayport-Blue Point.

On Saturday, teams of birders spread out across New York State to count freshwater ducks, saltwater ducks, and geese for the annual New York State Ornithological Association waterfowl count. Locally, from Shinnecock Inlet to Montauk Point, seven groups of birders faced winds and temperatures that were stubbornly in the mid-30s to peer into our ponds, bays, and coves. They located 31 species of waterfowl for a total of 10,451 birds. More than half that number, 5,303, were the familiar Canada goose.

“It was an extraordinarily competitive meet, and our athletes performed at a very high level. We’re looking strong as we head for the states and nationals,” Tom Cohill, head coach of the Y.M.C.A. East Hampton RECenter’s youth swim team, the Hurricanes, said on returning from a large regional Winterfest meet at the University of Maryland last weekend.