On the weekend of Nov. 8, the Oyster Bay High School Boys and Girls Cross Country teams traveled to the State University of New York at Canton just a few miles from the Canadian border to compete in the New York State Cross Country Championships.
Alex Tosi became the first Bayman since Joe Jazwinski and Justin Nakrin (2008) to become All-State, placing 16th with a time of 16:53. Most runners ran about 20 seconds slower than their Bethpage times because of the muddy conditions on the course. Tosi’s time was basically equivalent to his best Bethpage time, as he powered through the toughest parts of the race. He led the Baymen to a seventh place finish in the Class C race, an improvement from their 11th place finish last year, which ties the highest place at the New York State Championships of a Baymen team since 2009.
Matt Palczewski won the sportsmanship award for Section 8. Each Nassau County Section selects a male and female athlete of outstanding character who shows sportsmanship on and off the course.
Coach Kevin Cotter said, “Matt is the ultimate competitor, and expects a lot of himself. At the same time he is always respectful to his coaches, teammates and competitors.”
The trip to the States for the Boys and the Girls was the icing on the cake of a stellar season.
The Oyster Bay Men’s cross country team ran their final league meet hoping to finish their dream season with another victory. This time it was against Cold Spring Harbor, Wheatley and Friends Academy. Entering the meet 10-0, a conference championship was at stake, as Mineola only had one loss throughout the season. Tosi was dominant again, winning the race with an impressive time of 17:08.5.
The boys team shut out Friends Academy, Wheatley and Cold Spring Harbor by taking first through fifth in the race. The boys finished with a perfect record of 13-0, earning a conference championship.
Tosi went undefeated on the season, in conference meets winning all five races by an average margin of over 30 seconds. Tosi completed his undefeated season against conference opponents from 13 schools. His closest opponent was a distant 20 seconds behind him, and twice this season the closest competitor was over a minute behind him.
Finishing second in the race was junior all-conference standout Jason Cassella (18:13), followed by all conference runners Stevie Sweet (third in 18:14) and Jack Sherbal (fourth in 18:31).
Aidan Doxey (sixth in 18:59), Dylan Mavros (seventh in 19:00) and Matt Palczewski (11th in 19:19) rounded out the top seven, as Oyster defeated second place Wheatley by a score of 52-16.
Cassella and Sweet have been in the top five of every conference meet this season, helping the Baymen to build a lead on their competition. Along with Sherbal, they earned an automatic bid for all-conference.
“On one hand this has been an historical season in terms of wins and losses,” according to Coach Cotter, “and Tosi just had one of the most successful years in the history of this program. However, in terms of meeting our goal times, some of our varsity runners have fallen short of their personal goals. We want to be competitive at the state level, and in order to that we have to work harder as a team and log more mileage over the summer.”
The Baymen recently placed sixth out of 22 teams in the Northeast Championships, led by Tosi’s Oyster Bay record breaking time of 16:00.
