Sports

Kevin Bunce, who has been bringing along young rugby players in the past few years, having taken over the under-19 reins from Rich Brierley, can point with some pride now to the fact that three of his protégés — Brandon Johnson, Axel Alanis, and Josh King — have won scholarships to play the increasingly popular sport in college.

The Maidstone Market repeated as the champion of the Wednesday evening 7-on-7 men’s soccer league at East Hampton’s Herrick Park on July 12 by coming back to defeat Bateman Painting 2-1.

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A 26-year-old San Fransciscan, Matt Watson, won Sunday’s Montauk Lighthouse sprint triathlon in 1 hour, 4 minutes, and 22 seconds.

Fighting Chance, a free service for cancer patients and their families, was on its own this year, following what was described as an amicable parting with Swim Across America, and despite the fact that the site had to be changed from Long Beach to Havens Beach at the last minute, all went well, the weather being beautiful and the swimming conditions being pretty much perfect.

The popular B-rated horse show will be held Wednesday in Sagaponack.

Local Sports Schedule

East Hampton’s 9-10-year-old traveling all-star team rode its pitching, hitting, and heads-up baserunning to a District 36 championship, the first in a quarter-century, this week.

The town’s lifeguarding guru, 82-year-old John Ryan Sr., said Monday morning at his customary Amagansett Beach Association post, that all was well with the town’s lifeguarding program, from the ground up.

Amaden-Gay Insurance Company golf teams, with Reed Jones, John Wallace, Chris McDonald, Benjamin Dollinger, and Peter Cooper among its players, recently have won Chubb and AIG charity golf tournaments in East Norwich, N.Y., and Roslyn, resulting in a $1,500 donation to the Wellness Foundation and in a $14,000 donation to the East Hampton Food Pantry.

The team is to play in national championships in Wisconsin (at Whistling Straits) in August and in Newport Beach, Calif. (at the Resort at Pelican Hill), in November. 

Asked his name after he had crossed the Firecracker 8K finish line in Southampton Sunday morning, the winner said, “Jeff Ares.”

After the accident in 2010 that deprived him of the use of his legs, two of his upper thoracic vertebrae having been fractured, Dennis Johnson, who loved just about all sports as a youth, said he was “a little bit depressed.”

Little League district playoffs and more coming up this week.

Bob Budd, who is to be inducted into East Hampton High School’s Hall of Fame in the fall, has been associated with Bonac’s football program for the past half-century — the last 17 years as a volunteer.

Going into last night’s games, Hampton F.C.-Bill Miller, at 6-0-3, led the Wednesday evening 7-on-7 men’s soccer league, with 21 points, followed by Bateman Painting, the fall runner-up to Maidstone Market, at 5-0-4, with 19.

There were three Little League games here at high noon Sunday — two 11-to-12-year-old boys games at Pantigo and an 11-12 girls game at East Hampton High School.

Local Sports Notes

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Things went according to form Saturday as Edwin Kipsang Rotich, a 28-year-old Kenyan, ran away from his nearest competitor and fellow countryman, Eliud Ngetich, 23, just shy of the 2-mile mark, and cruised thereafter to win the 38th Shelter Island 10K in 29 minutes and 28.57 seconds.

John Pizzo, during a recent conversation at The Star concerning his 23-0 Police Athletic League third-grade boys lacrosse team, said of his and John Tintle’s charges, “They’re a unique blend of talent and heart — it’s a wonderful team.”

     A number of strong volleyballers, including Kim Valverde, whose Hillsborough Junior College team placed seventh in the nation, Jesse Libath, Hayden Ward, the State University Athletic Conference’s player of the year in men’s basketball, and Tahlia Miller, showed up at Gurney’s Inn in Montauk last Thursday evening for an informal round of 4-on-4 games — a prelude to a six-week league to begin July 11.

Saturday, July 6

SWIMMING, ‘Swim Across America’ half-mile, mile, and three mile races in Gardiner’s Bay, benefit cancer research and Fighting Chance, Fresh Pond Road, Amagansett, 6-11 a.m.

Sunday, July 7

RUNNING, ‘Firecracker 8K,’ benefit Southampton Rotary scholarship fund, Agawam Park, Southampton, 8:30 a.m.

Monday, July 8

YOUTH LACROSSE, Zach Brenneman’s camp, opening day, East Hampton High School turf field, 9 a.m.-1 p.m., through Thursday.

Wednesday, July 10

June 9, 1988

    This year’s Shelter Island 10K field proved to be the deepest the race has ever attracted. Seventeen runners broke 31 minutes, a 5-minute-per-mile pace.

    . . . Notable performances by local runners included Kevin Barry’s 32:27, good for 30th place, and Cheryl Bednosky’s 39:06, like Barry’s a personal best. Bednosky was the 16th woman, despite the fact she had bronchitis. She and Barry received the “top East Ender” awards. Tim Fitzpatrick, also of Shelter Island, ran a 33:37, his best time in the distance by three minutes. He was 40th.

   Peter Barron, a 14-year-old eighth grader at the East Hampton Middle School, is about to launch an international sailing career, having been picked to represent the United States in the Optimist class.

   The Gubbins Running Ahead stores here are high-energy places, and Gubbins’s four new salesmen fit the bill nicely.

    Running under the Gubbins Distance Project team banner, the four — Owen Dawson, an all-American 800 runner from Penn State, Ryan Hagen, a second-team all-American from Virginia Tech, Shawn Roberts, a two-time all A.C.C. runner from Georgia Tech, and Will McFall, an all-Ivy 800 runner from Cornell — are expected to pretty much dominate whatever races they may enter here this summer.

   Going up against the dominant defending-champion Reds in the East Hampton Town Little League’s 11-to-12-year-old “world series” presented a challenge for the very young Pirates, but Tim Garneau’s team acquitted itself well in the best-of-three final, which ended with a 4-1 Reds’ victory at the Pantigo fields Friday night.

Thursday, June 27

GOLF, U.S. Women’s Open, Sebonack Golf Club, Southampton, from 6:45 a.m.

BEACH VOLLEYBALL, opening night with informal play, Gurney’s Inn, Montauk, 6 p.m.

Friday, June 28

GOLF, U.S. Women’s Open, Sebonack Golf Club, Southampton, from 6:45 a.m.

Saturday, June 29

GOLF, U.S. Women’s Open, Sebonack Golf Club, Southampton, from 6:45 a.m.

RUNNING, Miracle Mile, Neighborhood Road, Mastic Beach, 9 a.m.

   The U.S. Women’s Open is to be played at the Sebonack Golf Club in Southampton this week, beginning today, and among those listed as players to watch in Newsday’s preview Tuesday were eight South Koreans, one of whom, the 16-year-old Lydia Ko, the U.S. Women’s Amateur champion, lives in New Zealand.

    In the past nine years, beginning with Se Ri Pak in 1998, South Korean golfers have won the U.S. Open six times. They’ve taken the last four out of five — Inbee Park in 2008, Eun-Hee Ji in ’09, So Yeon Ryu in ’11, and Na Yeon Choi, whose nickname is NYC, last year.

   Boston, and the fatal terror attack there in April, was very much on everyone’s minds leading up to the 34th Shelter Island Overcoming Obstacles 10K Saturday, and consequently certain precautions, such as prohibiting backpacks and providing clear plastic bags for the collection of refuse at the start and finish lines rather than metal bins, were taken, but all, the race’s director, Mary Ellen Adipietro, said, went smoothly.