Bayport-Blue Point earns second in cross country
The Bayport-Blue Point boys team had high expectations for yesterday's state Federation cross country championship at Bowdoin Park.
Finishing in the top five of the team championship was a huge goal.
The Phantoms exceeded that expectation in a big way as Conor Crowley and Joe Ray finished 23rd and 37th to lead Bayport-Blue Point to a second-place finish.
"I was on the phone with one of the kid's fathers when they were announcing the scores and thought they said we finished fifth. I was ecstatic about that," said Bayport-Blue Point coach Roger Kauffman.
Kauffman nearly got the shock of his life when he got off the phone and heard his team took second. "One of the kids told me we finished second and I almost keeled over," Kauffman joked.
Crowley finished the 5k race in 16:30.9 and Ray in 16:42.6 to lead the Phantoms.
"The hope, specifically, was that my number one and two kids would run together," Kauffman said. "And that's exactly what happened."
The rest of Bayport-Blue Point's top five - Erich Grosse, John Antonacci, Jeff Byrne - finished 32 seconds of each other.
"I gave the same type of direction to Erich and John, to run with each other," Kauffman said.
Grosse finished 79th in 17:11.4, Antonacci was 85th in 17:15.5, while Byrne (147th) finished in 17:43.2.
Kauffman was especially pleased with Byrne. "Jeff didn't run last spring or winter," Kauffman said. "I was impressed with his effort today."
It was a cap to a great season for the Phantoms, who took second in the Class B race at the NYSPHSAA state championships last weekend and was the Suffolk Class B champion.
Westbury's Owen Skeete was the highest finisher among Long Island boys, taking sixth in 16:12.8.
Thomas Awad (16:18.3) and Will Slattery (16:18.9) took 12th and 13th, respectively and led Chaminade to a fifth-place finish. Chaminade was followed by Connetquot, which finished sixth behind the solid running of Tyler Murtha (42nd) and Zach Krause (44th).
Other notables include Massapequa's Andrew Valenski (16:23.8) who was 17th, St. John the Baptist's Brandon Camenzuli (16:31.3), who was 24th and Mika Damato (16:31.3) of Whitman who was 25th.
St. Anthony's Thomas Diliberto (34th), Charlie Morris (39th) of Manhasset and Smithtown's Robert Calamia (45th) were in the top 50.
