This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Sports

On Their Mark, Girls Set for State Finals

County champion Bayport-Blue Point to compete this weekend in cross country championships.

After finishing first in League VII, the  varsity girls cross country team last week added a Suffolk County Class B championship to their list of accomplishments. Now, coach Vincent Ungaro’s team will set its sights on the New York State championships, to be held in Pawling this Saturday.  

Led by sophomore standout Katie Saroka, the Lady Phantoms cruised through the five-meet competition this season, defeating Elwood/John Glenn 20-43, Hampton Bays 20-41, Southampton 20-43, Babylon 17-46, and Mt. Sinai 26-31. (Runners are awarded points based on their finishing position. Therefore, low score wins).

In winning the county title, Bayport-Blue Point topped their prime competition, Mt. Sinai, who they finished second to in 2009 for both league and county championships.            

Find out what's happening in Sayville-Bayportwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

“I’m not surprised by our success,” said Ungaro, adding that the Phantoms “have been trying to beat Mt. Sinai,” who already had a 2010 Suffolk County spring track championship, for some time.            

Saroka—the number two runner in the county behind Elwood/John Glenn’s Sarah Hardy—has been running cross country since the seventh grade. This season, she turned in Bayport’s fourth-fastest time ever for a 5-kilometer race (20:27). As she eyes an improvement on her 2009 state championship race (where she placed 52 out of 132 runners), Saroka said she’ll “go out at a comfortable pace and come up harder” toward the latter portion of the race. Can she win the race? “I can try,” she said, grinning.            

Find out what's happening in Sayville-Bayportwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Saroka will be joined by six teammates: eighth grader Taylor Darby and her older sister, senior Brenna Darby, both first-year cross country runners, junior Allison Coyle, and freshmen Tori Moretti, Courtney Dooley and her twin sister Cassie, who is also running cross country for the first time. “We are a young team,” Ungaro noted.            

At Pawling, Bayport will compete with 10 other New York State sectional champions for the state title. Although cross country is a sport of individual competition, Saroka said that while she’s running, she’s “thinking about the team, and what I can do to help them win.”

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?