Sports

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.

   It was a celebratory week here soccer-wise, highlighted by the Under-16 Hurricanes’ Long Island Cup championship win Saturday, a first, and their 2-0 shutout of Auburndale-Bayside Sunday that crowned an undefeated Long Island Junior Soccer League Division 1 season.

    The Hurricanes, coached by Don McGovern, who helps Rich King with East Hampton High’s powerful program — the Bonackers have made it to the county finals in three of the past four years and are two-time defending county champions — thus finished the travel team spring season with a 13-0-1 record.

   Peter Heinz, 36, a Manhattanite who’s summering in Springs, had just biked 30 miles out to Montauk and back on Saturday when his girlfriend, Analisa Cipriano, told him that a triathlon was about to get under way at Maidstone Park. Away they went, and though Heinz arrived late, he quickly swam his way into the lead in the 300-yard swim and didn’t look back during the course of the 7-mile bike and one-and-one-half-mile run.

    The triathlete, who was eighth at Mighty Hamptons last fall, registered for the race after winning it in 40 minutes and 15.42 seconds.

    Going into last night’s games at East Hampton’s Herrick Park, Hampton F.C.-Bill Miller led the Wednesday evening 7-on-7 men’s soccer league with a 5-2-0 mark, though the Hideaway, thanks to a 3-1 upset of perennial-champion Maidstone Market on June 12, was right behind, at 4-2-1.

    The Market, whose entry in an 11-on-11 league at Calverton is undefeated, was in third place, along with Tortorella Pools, each with 4-3-0 marks. Tuxpan, which played Bill Miller tough in a 1-0 loss on the 12th, was in fifth place, and Bateman Painting, a former champion, was last, at 1-5-1.

   The future of tennis is in good hands if the attendance at the East Hampton Indoor/Outdoor Tennis Club’s “festival” for kids was any indication.

Saturday, June 22

PICKLEBALL, introductory clinic, East Hampton Indoor/Outdoor Tennis Club, Daniel’s Hole Road, Wainscott, 8:30-10 a.m.

TENNIS, Kids Day, Hampton Racquet Club, Buckskill Road, East Hampton, 10 a.m.-1 p.m.

Wednesday, June 26

MEN’S SOCCER, Maidstone Market vs. Tortorella Pools, 6:30 p.m.; Hampton F.C.-Bill Miller vs. Bateman Painting, 7:25, and The Hideaway vs. F.C. Tuxpan, 8:20, Herrick Park, East Hampton.

Thursday, June 27

U.S. WOMEN’S OPEN, opening day, Sebonack Golf Club, Southampton.

   Both of Pierson (Sag Harbor) High School’s Final Four state playoff teams lost in semifinal contests Saturday; the boys were edged 1-0 in a pitchers’ duel by Seton Catholic, a Binghamton area team, and the girls were shut out 7-0 by Frewsburg.

    Seton Catholic and Frewsburg went on to win the state Class C championships, in baseball and softball.

   Jim Nicoletti, who heads East Hampton High School’s Hall of Fame committee, announced the selection of the Hall’s second class at the athletic awards dinner on June 5 — a group that comprises 11 individual honorees, two coaches, and two championship teams.

    The designees are to be formally inducted on homecoming day, Saturday, Oct. 12, at a ceremony following a breakfast in the high school’s cafeteria.

    A 21-year-old native of New Zealand, Michael Poole, won Saturday’s 31st Montauk triathlon in 1 hour, 47 minutes, and 54 seconds, a record.

    Poole was 11th out of the water, in 21:13, though only two seconds separated him from the eventual runner-up, Tom Eickelberg, who was the first to emerge from the brisk and choppy one-mile Lake Montauk swim.

   The Yellow Slugs were anything but sluggish as they defeated the favored Oilers 6-3 in the spring adult roller hockey final at the Sportime Arena on June 4.

    And they did it despite conceding the Oilers four power plays, three of which resulted from penalties assessed the Slugs’ slick and quick forward Neil Powell.

    The game provided an interesting matchup inasmuch as Tommy Powell, Neil’s brother, was in the goal for the Oilers. Neil got the better of Tommy on two occasions in the first half, with Matt Brierley adding another for a 3-0 halftime lead.

Turbo Tri

    A triathlon for competitors 17 and up comprising a 300-yard Gardiner’s Bay swim, a 7-mile bike leg, and a one-and-one-half-mile run is to be held at Maidstone Park in Springs on Saturday at 6 p.m.

    The race, over the same course that younger triathletes are to traverse next month, is a fund-raiser for the growing I-Tri program, which is designed, according to I-Tri’s founder, Theresa Roden, to empower adolescent girls. “Transformation Through Triathlon” is the program’s motto.

Friday, June 14

SOCCER, East Hampton High School alumni game, high school’s turf field, 5:30 p.m.

Saturday, June 15

SHELTER ISLAND 10K, with Bill Rodgers, Joan Benoit Samuelson, and Dick Beardsley, Shelter Island High School, 5:30 p.m.

TURBO-TRI, 300-yard bay swim, 7-mile bike, and 1.5-mile run for competitors 17-and-up, benefit I-Tri program to empower adolescent girls, Maidstone Park, 6 p.m., with party to follow at the Maidstone Park pavilion.

Sunday, June 16

   Ian Lynch, the Colgate-bound East Hampton High School senior and class valedictorian, made the all-state golf team as a result of his 15th-place finish in the state tournament played on Cornell University’s course last weekend.

   It was the first time that Lynch, who also was the recipient of Suffolk golf’s sportsmanship award, had made the all-state team.

   The 31st Montauk triathlon, founded by the late Bob Aaron, is to be contested Saturday morning, beginning at 7:30, with what promises to be a brisk mile-long swim in Lake Montauk.

    Both defending champions, the 21-year-old Ryan Siebert of Patchogue and Laurel Wassner, a 37-year-old pro from New York City, who became the first female to win this race outright in 2011, won’t be here, Merle McDonald-Aaron, the race director, said Monday.

    Registration is, as usual, closed, inasmuch as the 650-competitor limit has been reached, McDonald-Aaron said.

   Melissa Edwards, who coaches Pierson (Sag Harbor) High School’s softball team, thought when the season began that this would be a rebuilding year, but, lo, her overachievers proved her wrong, to her delight.

    The Whalers, whose anchors are Kasey Gilbride, the line-drive hitting shortstop, and Samma Duchemin, the pitcher, clinched the county Class C championship at home last Thursday by defeating their perennial rival, Port Jefferson, 6-3.

   “We’ve given out seven or eight scholarships now,” Maureen Bluedorn said, with a smile, the other day at the well-appointed Stony Hill Stables in Amagansett, as the most recent recipient, Georgia Bunce, 8, with her mother, Megan, looking on, prepared to saddle up for a lesson in the pony ring.

    Bluedorn was referring to the year-old Stony Hill Stables Foundation’s laudable effort to extend the joy and challenging demands of equestrian sport to more and more youngsters here.

Saturday, June 8

MONTAUK TRIATHLON, 1-mile swim, 22-mile bike, and 10K run, intersection of West Lake and Star Island Drives, 7:30 a.m.

SOFTBALL, state Class C semifinals, Morse Fields, Queensbury, 9 a.m.; final,  Adirondack Sports Complex, Queensbury, 2 p.m.

BASEBALL, state Class C semifinals, Broome Community College, Binghamton, 10 a.m. and 1 p.m.; championship game, 4.

SWIM ACROSS AMERICA, kick-off reception, Sag Harbor Yacht Club, 6-9 p.m.

Wednesday, June 12

   A rain delay on May 28 interrupted what proved to be the deciding game of the county Class C baseball series, at which time Pierson High School’s Whalers were sailing along on the crest of a 7-0 lead.

    Jon Tortorella, Pierson’s coach, would rather the game had continued that day, noting that soon after the postponement decision it stopped raining. But, in the end, it mattered little as the Whalers, who went 19-1 in the regular season, continued to dominate Port Jefferson on May 29, winning the championship 9-4.

   Shawn Roberts, who red-shirted this year at Georgia Tech so that he could have another year of eligibility, easily won the Bonac on Board to Wellness 5K from the Reutershan Parking Lot to East Hampton Village’s Main Beach on May 22 in 16 minutes and 45 seconds.

    “He was coasting,” said John Conner, when told that Roberts’s employer, Barbara Gubbins, had said he was “a 1:48 half-miler.”

    “If he had been going all out, I think he would have run it in 15-something, or less,” said Conner, who added that he had run as fast as the winner when he was 50.

   Shooting rounds of 76 and 75 at the Indian Island golf course last week, Ian Lynch, who is to attend Colgate University in the fall, became, according to his coach, Claude Beudert, the first Bonacker to qualify for three state championships in the sport.

    Lynch, whose first-day score ranked him 10th among the county’s individual competitors going into the tourney’s second day, finished fifth, thus qualifying him to play in the state tournament this weekend at Cornell University.