Beltran, Somma pace Valley Stream North

Kevin Beltran’s cross-country career may not have been long, but he still managed to leave a lasting impression.

For the second straight year, the senior finished second in the Nassau County XC Class II Championships at Bethpage State Park last weekend to help Valley Stream North finish fifth among the 15 schools that competed. Junior Matteo Somma also had a strong fourth-place finish for the Spartans, whose overall score of 126 was just one worse than fourth-place Calhoun.

“We had a great couple of weeks of training and these guys just put a lot of effort into it,” coach Tim Boyens said. “We got these two guys at the front that are real leaders and then the younger guys that follow them around wherever they go. I was really happy for them.”

Beltran, who forgoed soccer to join the cross-country team last fall, finished with a time of 16 minutes, 37.77 seconds on the notoriously hilly 5K course, a pace of 5:21 per mile. Only Logan Schaeffler of Calhoun was better at 16:15.90 with Garden City’s Ryan McAlea trailing Beltran by just under seven seconds for third.

“He finished real strong,” Boyens said. “He came out of the woods and I chirped at him like, ‘What are we waiting for?’, and then he just starts running real fast. He let Logan get too far away and he couldn’t catch him.”

Last season, Beltran broke the school record in his first-ever start with a time of 16:04.54. He won for all four of this year’s league meets in September to help North finish with a conference-best 12-1 record and also finished in under 17 minutes at the Freshman-Sophomore-Junior-Senior meet at Eisenhower Park on Oct. 18.

Somma, who consistently placed among the top three in the Spartans’ league events this year, finished just over five seconds behind McAlea with a time of 16:48.54. He had plenty of momentum coming into the event after placing third at Eisenhower with a personal-best time of 16:09.9.

“Matteo has been getting significantly better with every race,” Boyens said.

Freshman Chamar Borden was the third-best Spartan, finishing 34th at just over 19 minutes. He too was coming off a personal-record time of 17:59.4 at Eisenhower among his numerous top-five finishes this season.

Senior Charles Wu wasn’t that far behind with a time of 19:13.71, good for 41st in the field of 131 competitors. Frankie Polizzi, another promising freshman, was 45th in his event debut with a time of 19:21.30, “hard-working” sophomore Mateusz Grabowski was 48th at 19:20.30 and eighth-grader Andrew Lavoie was the seventh-best Spartan at 21:52.11.

All seven boys return to Bethpage this weekend for the state qualifier and Boyens believes that North could have a couple of representatives at that championship event in Verona on Nov. 11.

“On paper, I think there’s 10-12 guys that are real good and it’s going to be who wants it more on Saturday afternoon,” Boyens reasoned. “I think Kevin will qualify for sure, but I wouldn’t count Matteo Somma out.”