Longwood's Fuller wins 600 at state qualifier

Longwood sprinter Joe Fuller said his coach would bake a cake for him if he wins the 600 meters at the NYSPHSAA state championships March 5 at Cornell University.

Fuller took a big step toward getting his just dessert, winning the 600 at yesterday's state qualifier in a Suffolk CC-Brentwood record time of 1 minute, 23.71 seconds.

Fuller trailed Shoreham-Wading River's Kevin Sanders for most of the race, but passed him with about 100 meters left. Fuller said it was exactly how he envisioned the race.

"That's how I usually do it," Fuller said. "I wait until the beginning of the third turn and then I kick it in."

Sanders (1:24.50) qualified with his second-place finish. So did Southampton's Nicholas Collazos, who finished third in 1:24.91.

Fuller's day didn't end there. The senior ran the anchor leg of Longwood's winning 4 x 400 team (Soba Vincent, Shane Cruz, Joe Payton), which took first in 3:31.18.

Longwood coach Joe Reilly was pleased with Fuller's day, but was lukewarm about the cake.

SEE PHOTOSSuffolk winter track individual championships

"I'll buy him a Ring-Ding or something," Reilly joked.

Longwood's Mark Jackson also qualified for the state meet with a second-place finish in the 55.

"It looks good upstate," Reilly said. "We could do all right."

For the Port Jefferson 4 x 800 relay team of Colin Flanagan, Ryan Flanagan, Andrew Keresztes and Cole Conte, it was all about sacrifice.

"Everyone except for Andrew stayed fresh," Conte said. "We could've all ran in individual races, but we decided not to because we had a better chance to qualify in the relay."

That selfless group decision paid off as Port Jefferson, one of the smallest schools in Suffolk, qualified for the state meet, taking first in 8:20.56.

Keresztes, the only one of the four to run an individual race, took second in the 1,000 in a qualifying time of 2:37.37. Port Jefferson's Thomas Bove also qualified with a second-place finish in the long jump (21 feet, 9½ inches).

Other standouts at the qualifier included Sachem East's Greg Markfelder in the long jump (6-4), Connequot's Tyler Murtha, who took first in the 1,600 in 4:29.95, North Babylon's Kris Moran, who won the 3,200 in 9:34.46 and Ibrahim Abubka (36.8) of Brentwood with a top finish in the 300.

Half Hollow Hills West's 4 x 400 team of Justin Connor, Justin Ma, Dan McCord and Abdias Myrtil won in 1:33.24, Central Islip's Ryan Satchell won the triple jump (45-10), Dayne Savory (6.54) was first in the 55 and Kashaun Boynton ran to a first-place finish in the 55 hurdles in 7.85.