By Christopher Hunt
WARWICK – Everyone keeps saying that the season is still early. They say that their team is still trying to find out who they are or that they’re working through a heavy training period or even that these races don’t matter yet. And that all sounds good until the best team in New Jersey and one of the best in New York take the starting line together. That’s when it doesn’t matter as much that it’s still September, suddenly teams have a measuring stick.
Don Bosco Prep (N.J.) and Warwick Valley may have both found that they have some work left to do but that didn’t make the boys Varsity 1 race at Warwick Wave Mania any less exciting or intriguing. Led by a completely dominant performance by Rafael Vargas, Don Bosco topped Warwick Valley 32-39 at Sanfordville Elementary School. Vargas led nearly the entire race and dropped the field before they turned into the final straightaway. He won in 15 minutes, 38 seconds on the 3.09-mile course, followed by teammate Howard Rosas in second in 15:52.
“Our top two guys, Rafie and Howie, are reaping the benefits of a 900-mile summer,” Don Bosco coach Kevin Kilduff said. “They ran great. We need work from the 3 through 7. We’re not ready for the big time teams yet. There was too big of a gap between our back guys. We can’t have that. We have four kids where this is their first varsity season. They’ll learn through experience.”
Not only is Don Bosco stacked with underclassmen but senior Michael Belgiovine (seventh in 16:28) also had his season debut after sitting out the Regis Invitational last weekend while he recovered from a leg injury. Kilduff said he will expect more from Belgiovine and the young group behind him but was impressed with Vargas.
“I saw in Raf a confidence that he’s never had before,” Kilduff said. “He proved to me that he’s going to be formidable this season.”
Vargas said he tried to stay controlled on the uphills but when Warwick’s Tim Luthin and Grandinali didn’t quite disappear he switched gears over the last mile and a half, then he went into overdrive in the home stretch for the win.
“I was trying to catch the ATV ahead of me,” he said of the lead car. “I got really excited once we came out and I saw all the people lined up by the finish line.”
The team agreed that the race was meant to gain experience for the younger runners. Kilduff said he hoped it served as a wake-up call to some people. “They know who they are,” he said. Vargas said he knows the team will only improve.
“I feel confident in our team,” Vargas said. “I feel like if we did it before, we can do this again.”
Suffern won the boys Varsity 2 race with 62 points, edging Manhasset by eight. Mounties’ coach Joe Biddy endured the same issues with the back group of his top 7.
“Our first three guys ran well,” he said. “Our fourth and fifth guys, they’re young. They’re learning. They’re hanging in there. Right now we’re further ahead than I expected. They’re being pushed into the mainstream a little early.”
“We didn’t run up to our potential today,” said senior Kevin McKenna who led Suffern in fifth 16:21. “Everybody was a little bit flat today. We don’t know how good we are yet. We still have a lot to prove to ourselves.”
Johnny Mitchell and Tyler Frigge finished ninth and 10th respectively. Suffern’s next three finishers Ryan Cross (24th), Evan Ward (30th) and Shawn Vettom are all sophomores. Biddy said the team was tentative early which only snowballed through the race but hoped they would learn from the race. James McDonough of Mahopac won the race in 15.54, holding off a late charge from Bainbrige-Guilford’s Chris Burnett.
“It’s a long way to go,” he said. “Manhattan (Invitational) is the real start of the season. Everything else is [preliminary].”
Reach Christopher Hunt at chunt@armorytrack.com.