By Tony Bellissimo
The Spartans, who totaled 131 points in the meet and bested second-place North Shore by 51, will look to carry their momentum into Sunday’s county Class B championships at Suffolk Community College in Brentwood.
³Scoring points in every event isn’t an easy thing to do,² coach Tim Boyens said. ³These kids do whatever they have to do to help the team. We finished fourth in the county last winter and we¹re shooting to be better than that this time.²
Defending county champion Lynbrook appears tough to beat, but North is more than capable of placing in the top three.
³Our distance runners are the backbone of the team,² said Boyens, citing the efforts of juniors Carlo Balbo, David Monteiro and Steven Carey. ³They trained 60-70 miles a week during the summer and had tremendous cross-country seasons. It¹s no surprise they¹re still going strong.²
In the conference meet, Balbo placed second in the 1,600 in 4-minutes, 55-seconds, and third in the 1,000. Monteiro was runner-up in the 3,200 (10:46.1) and Carey was fourth in the 1,000. Moreover, the trio teamed with senior Ken Francis to form a 4-x-800 relay that came within a few seconds of besting North Shore.
Francis was one of three Spartans to come up big in the 55HH. He was runner-up to senior teammate Tyler Nappy, who crossed the tape in 8.5 seconds. Senior Marko Kepi was a surprising third. ³A lot of schools don¹t emphasize the hurdles because of all the work involved as well as the safety issues,² Boyens explained. ³We take pride in the event. We have a group of hurdlers that push each other to a higher level. It¹s such a short and technical race. Everything has to be exact to do well.²
If senior Pierson Sewer (broken foot) would have been able to compete, the Spartans would have taken the first four spots in the event.
North junior Vincent Ricotta won the shot put with a personal-best heave of 42-feet, 5.5-inches. Ricotta¹s older brother, Antonio, is the school record holder in the event. ³Vinny¹s a hard working kid who¹s going to give that record a run for sure,² Boyens said.
Senior Thomas Franzino, a captain along with Francis, was second in the 55- and 300-meter dashes and part of the 4-x-400 relay along with Nappy, senior Carlos Lozada (second in high jump) and junior Tim Dombrowski. The 4-x-200 relay was comprised of seniors Aikeem Riley and Christ Tantalo and sophomores Chris Patti and Pajman Eftekarzah.
³The success we had in the relays is a testament to our depth,² Boyens said.
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