Longwood's 4 x 400 team edges Brentwood

If sports movies are to be believed, when Blake Evans crossed the finish line at the end of Saturday's 4 x 400 meter relay at the Suffolk individual championship and state qualifiers, "Chariots of Fire" was playing somewhere in the distance.

OK, maybe not, but he got the other sports cliche down: He won this one by a nose.

The team, led by Evans and with Sebastian Bush, Vincent H-Soba and Joe Fuller, combined to run in 3 minutes, 19.94 seconds for Longwood -- a genuine photo-finish victory over second-place Brentwood (Todd Colas, Ibrahim Abubaka, Tevin Foster and Myles Fowler), which came in at 3:19.97.

"Amazing," coach Joe Reilly said of the day's closest finish.

Especially considering Evans had recently finished running the 4 x 100 and, "he didn't have a lot of rest," Reilly said. "He was tightening up in the last 20."

It was another banner day for Longwood track, which had Joe Payton take the 400-meter hurdles in 52.85 seconds and Shane Cruz win the pentathlon, according to Reilly.

Cruz, who had decided to forgo running the mile relay for the pentathlon, shaved four seconds off his 1,500 this year, down to 4:26, and gained strength after a season of playing tight end for the Longwood football team. After coming in third last year, he believed he had improved enough to take it all, since the event was more suited to his personality.

SEE PHOTOSSuffolk track championships

"I'm independent," he said. "I didn't want to do the 4 x 400 and mess it up."

There was no such crisis in the pentathlon; Cruz, a senior, has been competing since ninth grade.

"I felt really confident," he said. "My hurdle time went down, my stamina is better."

Cruz attributed much of the strength and stamina to his time on the football team. He's been playing for nine years, but joined the varsity only this year.

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Reilly said that the reigning state federation champs are hoping for another strong year upstate, now with a mostly senior crew.

"It's very interesting," he said. "In some respects, they're better, but we really have to wait and see."

Longwood wasn't the only strong finisher. Amityville's Sancho Barrett took first place in the 110 hurdles with a 13.98.

Half Hollow Hills West had a strong showing in the 200 and the 4 x 100 relay (42.33) with Jessean Banks, Jamir Blackman, Justin Ma, and Dan McCord.

The Bellport team of Derek Palafox, Sheldon Derenoncourt, Brandon Santana and Travis Correa won the 4 x 800 relay in 7:50.67.

Hills West senior Dan McCord took first in the 200 with a time of 21.67. Brentwood's Todd Colas came in second in 22.13.

Meanwhile, Hills East's Gregg Perrier stunned Fuller in the 800 with a time of 1:53.05 to Fuller's 1:53.73.

Smithtown West's Mark Valentino won the 3,000 steeplechase in 9:42.32, and Southampton's Owen Laub took the 400 in 48.55. Northport's Tim Odin won the 1,600 in 4:19.61.

Central Islip's Ryan Satchell won the triple jump at 47 feet, 5 inches, and Sachem East's Greg Markfelder took the high jump in 6-6.