This weekend marked the first time that there was not a meet held at Sunken Meadow since early September. Many teams took the weekend off to either rest for their final dual meet, or to get in some quality training before the Division Championships. If teams were looking for a race, most looked to either the Nassau Coaches Invitational or the Burnt Hills Invitational. The Nassau Invitational was held at Bethpage State Park while Burnt Hills was held at Saratoga State Park.
At the Nassau Coaches Invitational both genders were split into two different races. Most of the competitors were from Nassau County, but all four varsity races were won by Suffolk County runners. In the girls Varsity A race, William Floyd's generational talent, Zariel Macchia, got back to her winning ways, victorious by 116 seconds in 18:36 over 5,000 meters. She earned the win over Massapequa's freshman (seems like their entire team is freshman as their first six team finishers are in ninth grade) Camrynn Gildea who clocked a 20:32. The next Suffolk County finishers were Kaliyah Hull from Deer Park and Macchia's teammate, Aaliyah Jordan, who ran 21:13 and 21:16 for fourth and fifth, respectively.
Once again, Alicia DeFilippis earned a moment in the spotlight. She ran the best race of her career to validate her status as a favorite to qualify for the state meet. DeFilippis had the second fastest time of the day and captured a dominant win in 19:11. She has improved each week and has been reaching a new level in essentially every invitational she has competed in. There are not many Class A runners who will reach the state qualifier with more momentum than DeFilippis. She won the race by 35 seconds over Class B's South Side duo of Cameron Coletti and Claire Bohan. The next two Section XI finishers were Comsewogue's Madison Cole (20:12) and Bay Shore's Vanessa Voltiare (20:25) earning fourth and fifth, respectively.
Although Suffolk had a great day individually, none of the Suffolk girls team won a varsity race. South Side won the varsity B race over Hauppauge and William Floyd took home a third place finish in the varsity A race.
The boys A race was won by Luke Pfeiffer, another Suffolk County native, from Eastport South Manor, in 16:22. He had the second fastest time of the day, helping his team to a dominant win. ESM has a very solid team, filled with underclassmen. The team forecast looks promising for the next couple of years, we have to apologize for missing their results from the McQuaid Invitational a few weeks ago. They are primed to finish among the top teams on November 4th and are set to compete with Northport, Ward Melville, Commack, Smithtown and Bay Shore for a Federation Meet bid. Pfeiffer was the only Suffolk runner to finish in the top 6, but ESM was able to put their entire top five within the top 15 finishers.
The fastest time of the day was from one of Class A's favorites, Jake Gogarty from Bay Shore. He has been the focus of quite a few paragraphs as he has strung together an excellent season so far and he continued his winning ways when he stopped the clock at 16:04. He won the race by 20 seconds over Oyster Bay's Christopher Tardugno. Gogarty received a speed rating of 180 by Tullyrunners.com, which ranks him right around the top 15 in the state overall. Bay Shore won the team race over Calhoun, earning only 31 points to Calhoun's 45. Bay Shore remains one of the favorites for the Class A title in November, but will have to work against a tough Northport team.
A notable mention is extended to Class B stand out Dylan Cashin as she raced her way to a second place finish in 16:29 at Van Cortlandt Park, among the rest of her East Hampton team.
At the Burnt Hills Invitational, two of Suffolk's projected top three Class A teams raced. Unfortunately, they were not in the same Division so we will have to wait a few more weeks to see them match up against each other directly.
West Babylon was the team of note in the Division III race. They finished second to a very strong Cornwall team who stands as the Class B favorite for states. West Babylon has run strong all season and has been getting better as the season progresses. One interesting aspect about their team is that they have had a different top five every single race of the year, showing the team's overall depth. 2021 State Qualifier Kristen Aguilera (no relation to the singer) was West Babylon's first runner at Burnt Hills, just ahead of her teammate Shannon Hieber. They finished 10th and 11th in 19:34 and 19:37. West Babylon's biggest strength is their depth and their compression. They had by far the smallest spread of any team in the Division III race (it was only 50 seconds). The previous week, their top five was Shannon Hieber, Alejandra Garcia, Jade Dockery, Tabitha Allen, Kristen Aguilera and this week it was Aguilera, Hieber, Dockery, Garcia, and then Jasmine Anderson (who didn't even run varsity for them at Manhattan). Their interchangeability and strong core can lead them to a possible Class A title in November, or at the very least a Federation bid. West Babylon had three runners under 20 minutes and they averaged 19:54 as a team. They were the only Suffolk girls team to run in any of the first three divisions of races.
Suffolk had a few teams in the Division IV race. For the first time all year, Northport had all of their girls in the same race at an invitational. Led by the Wickard sisters, Mia, Finnley and Emily, Northport finished third behind Section 2 and state powerhouses Saratoga and Bethlehem. All three Wickard's broke 19 minutes and finished in the top 20. Mia Wickard led the way by finishing 9th in 18:28. She was followed by her twin sister Finnley who had a breakout race to finish 16th in 18:45 and Emily dipped just under 19 to stop the clock in 18:59. As we wrote earlier in the season, Northport needs to find a fifth runner to keep up with Suffolk County foes, East Islip and West Babylon, and they may have found her. Freshman Kayla Forsch ended up being their fourth runner and just missed breaking 20 minutes. Northport averaged 19:17 as a team and had the fastest Suffolk team average of the day. Behind them, Connetquot's leading duo had the highest finish for the rest of the Suffolk teams; Olivia DiGaetano and Marissa McDougal finished well under 20 minutes in 26th and 35th place respectively. Both runners have excellent chances to be All County and could be in the state meet discussion if they improve over the remaining weeks.
The Miller Place boys were the lone Suffolk team in the Division III race and they finished 8th. They were led by Maxime Tchoubar who clocked a 17:10 to finish 31st. With only a 29 second spread, Miller Place could finish very high in Class B at the Sectional meet and they may even be able to win it overall.
The boys Division IV race had three Suffolk teams in it, two of which will most likely be among the top 5 at the Class A State Qualifier. The only Suffolk athlete to break 16 minutes was Douglas Antaky from Smithtown. Antaky followed up a strong race at Manhattan with another good one here. He set to enter the Division meet as at least, a co-favorite for the top Class A finisher alongside Gogarty. He finished in 8th place and crossed the line in 15:52 to lead Smithtown to an 8th place finish. Smithtown's top 3 is very strong but will need to sure up their 4 and 5 runners to make serious noise on November 4th. Their freshman group is very talented (second in the freshman race to Saratoga Springs) and there is a chance one of them can help their top five by the end of the season.
Northport's boys team was the highest finishing Suffolk team of the day. They were led by senior James McNaughton who just missed breaking 16 minutes to finish 13th right in front of his two teammates Tim Sheahan and Brandon Cruz who finished in 15th and 16th respectively. Northport's usual fourth runner, Chris Payne, was not in the results but they will need him when they face Bay Shore, Ward Melville, Eastport South Manor, Smithtown and Commack. Northport averaged 16:32 to earn a fifth place team finish. They will head into Divisions as the favorites to repeat as champions.
There will not be many teams in action next weekend because of the Division meet being held on Tuesday. Some teams may head up to Bowdoin for the Section 1 Coaches Invitational but there will be no meet held at Sunken Meadow for the second weekend in a row. Look for many runners to drop significant time at Divisions before they look ahead to the County Championships on November 4th.