Last week, for the second time in many years, Manhasset’s Varsity Boys Cross Country squad captured the Nassau Class II County Championship, defeating their nearest competitor Mepham High School, 43-60. The team ran strong over the five kilometer course through the woods and around the polo field of Bethpage State Park, taking advantage of a cool but beautiful autumn morning to put forward their best performance of the season.
Senior Tim Courts was the top individual in the race, earning his first-ever county title en route to leading Manhasset to the win. Courts’ time of 16:33 is the 11th fastest time recorded on the course in school history and he continues to climb up through the Manhasset record books this season. The story for the rest of the squad was once again the strength of the lead pack—which streamed through the finish line in succession, claiming the 9th to 13th spots to seal the victory. Juniors Justin Blanche (17:15) and Daniel Petruso (17:19) were joined by sophomores Nicky Harris (17:24—#10 All-Time Sophomore) and Aidan Caggiano (17:26—#11 All-Time Sophomore) and senior Athan Anderson (17:26), all of whom continue to make steady progress as the team moves forward in post-season competition. Junior Milton Pirsos (17:33) dropped 34 seconds from his previous best and was proceeded by sophomore Jack Cyprus (17:38—#17 All-Time Sophomore) who demonstrated similar improvement. Senior Harrison Barsky (17:59), and sophomore Ryan Watson (18:03—All-County Sophomore) completed the varsity scoring. Manhasset’s top 9 finishers all earned individual All-County honors—a school record. However, the accolades on this day did not end with the varsity competition.
The Junior Varsity squad was dominating in securing a victory of their own, as freshman Christopher Courts took the individual win to pace the Indians. Courts, who a week earlier earned All-County Freshman honors, recorded a personal best of 18:26, good for #12 on Manhasset’s All-Time list for freshmen. He was followed by junior All-Conference harrier James Grant (18:29), junior Luke LaSpina (19:00), sophomore Jack Boyle (19:19), and freshman Adam Stefan (19:30), who continues to make huge strides from one week to the next. The team’s score of 21 points bested the next best team by more than 30 points. The Indian’s JV squad was recently measured as the 6th best in New York State according to informal rankings produced by NY Milesplit, a regional and national-running website.
Many more Manhasset athletes ran to personal bests, including three who overcame the 20:00 5k barrier for the very first time; Dan McNeary (19:32), Aidan Sweeney (19:33), and Dan Cizmarik (19:38) all accomplished this feat, while senior cocaptain Joe Meyer just missed that mark, running 20:07 in his first all-out race in a seasoned plagued by an injury sustained during his summer training. Freshman Kyle Grant (20:07) and Henry Son (20:40), as well as sophomore Alex Mazer (20:13) also look poised to run beneath that mark before season’s end. Freshman James Chang demonstrated the biggest week over week improvement for the second consecutive time, shaving another three and a half minutes off his previous best to run 22:51 over the 5k course. Michael Cozzi, Marc Avallone, Andrew Liang, Matthew Cozzi and Jordan Ma also had big days, dropping between one and three minutes from their early season best.
The varsity squad will now begin their final preparations for the State Qualification meet was held on Nov. 7 at Bethpage State Park, where they will compete for a chance to represent Section VIII at the NYSPHAA Championships was held on Nov. 14 at Monroe-Woodbury High School in Central Valley, NY.
