Longwood bunched five finishers among the top 14 and won the Boys A race. Junior Shawn Britton (16:55.0) was second to Smithtown East’s Mike Giovaniello (16:39.1). Freshman teammate Kevin Krause was an eye-opening third in 16:56.0.
1. Michael Giovaniello (Smithtown East) 16:39.0; 2. Shawn Britton (Longwood) 16:55.0; 3. Kevin Krause (Longwood) 16:56.0; Team Scoring – Longwood 43, Newfield 68, Hauppauge 87, Centereach 116, Ward Melville 191. Boys B
Freshman Kevin Krause of Longwood was first in the county Class A cross-country race last week, running the 5,000-meter Sunken Meadow State Park course in 16 minutes, 24.7 seconds – a freshman course record. Frank LaBianca, coach of team champion William Floyd, was not surprised. “He could be an all-timer; the greatest,” LaBianca said. “He reminds me of {late world class runner} Steve Prefontaine, a strong guy with a great cardio-vascular system.” -Nov. 7, 1985
Floyd’s boys team won the Class A team championship for the fourth time at the state boys and girls cross-country championships yesterday at Binghamton with a score of 65 points. John Trautmann of Monroe-Woodbury won the 5-kilometer race in 15 minutes and 37 seconds while Shawn Brinton of Longwood was the top Long Islander, finishing eighth in 16:12. Terry Pricher was Floyd’s best finisher, coming in 10th in 16:16.
1. John Trautmann (Monroe-Woodbury) 15:37. 8. Shawn Brinton (Longwood) 16:12. 10. Terry Pritcher (Floyd) 16:15. 11. Patrick Smith (Harborfields) 16:16. 12. Kevin Krause (Longwood) 16:16. 13. Doug Casa (Newfield) 16:20. 14. Bob Cahn (Bellport) 16:24. 16. Mike Giovanniello (Smithtown East) 16:27. 32. John Wilkin (Mepham) 16:49. Team Scoring – 1. Floyd 65. 4. Longwood 81. 7. Mepham 184.
Sayville Runs Into Spotlight; Heads winners at Suffolk Coaches meet: [NASSAU AND SUFFOLK Edition]
By David Shaw. Newsday, Combined editions; Long Island, N.Y. [Long Island, N.Y]. 20 Oct 1985:
It took 18 minutes and 12.1 seconds, the time it took for allrunners to complete the 5,000-meter course, to unveil Suffolk’sbest-kept secret in boys cross-country yesterday at Sunken Meadow State Park in the Suffolk Coaches Meet. “I don’t think we’ll be much of a secret anymore,” coach Glenn Drago said after Sayville placed five runners among the top 19 finishers and captured the Boys C race with 65 points. “I think we’re being watched very closely now. A lot of coaches are looking over our shoulders.”
Sayville, without injured junior Billy Reed, its best runner, edged Lynbrook (90) and Port Jefferson (105). The victory will sit impressively alongside Sayville’s first-place showing in the Oct. 5 Grout Invitational and its unbeaten League VI dual meet championship season.
“They are almost a no-name club,” said Suffolk girls chairman Kieran Moran. “They really don’t have an outstanding runner. But they’ve come out as a team and surprised a lot of people. At the start of the year they claimed to be a good club and no one believed them. Now they’ve proven themselves.”
George Duncan paced Sayville with a fifth-place finish in a personal-best 17:21.2. Teammates Keith Larney (eighth in 17:31.5), Mark Malbi (12th in 17:46.4), John Fitzpatrick (14th in 17:50.8) and Ken Brown (19th in 18:12.1) also scored team points. Garden City’s T.J. McArdle won in 16:17.1, the best time of the day, followed by Port Jefferson’s Tommy Breit (16:31.6).
Sayville has emerged as a Suffolk title contender with Longwood, Centereach and defending Class A champion Floyd, which bypassed yesterday’s meet and entered the Fordham Invitational at Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx. Nassau and Suffolk conference meets are scheduled Friday and both county meets are scheduled for Nov. 1.
“Floyd is clearly the team to beat,” said Drago. “But right now, things look pretty good for us.” Longwood Wins Boys A
Longwood bunched five finishers among the top 14 and won the Boys A race. Junior Shawn Britton (16:55.0) was second to Smithtown East’s Mike Giovaniello (16:39.1). Freshman teammate Kevin Krause was an eye-opening third in 16:56.0.
Newfield took the Girls A race, led by Valerie Bertrand (second in 20:11.8), Laura Hoffmann (eighth in 21:11.0) and Mariella Bertrand (ninth in 21:16.2). Sandra Sindaro of Kings Park was first in 20:02.0. Hampton Bays Girls Triumph
Danielle Castellano (first in 21:58.3) helped Hampton Bays capture the Girls Classified race. Teammate Andrea Dwyer was 10th in 23:17.1.
Pearl River, the state’s top-ranked team, was an easy winner in the Girls B race. Della Haley’s 19:20.5 winning time was tops. Port Jefferson’s Becky Williams ran second in 19:28.8, the best time for a Long Islander. Boys A
1. Michael Giovaniello (Smithtown East) 16:39.0; 2. Shawn Britton (Longwood) 16:55.0; 3. Kevin Krause (Longwood) 16:56.0; Team Scoring – Longwood 43, Newfield 68, Hauppauge 87, Centereach 116, Ward Melville 191. Boys B
High School Notebook Floyd’s Runners Favored in Meet: [SUFFOLK Edition]
Herrmann, Mark. Newsday, Combined editions; Long Island, N.Y. [Long Island, N.Y]. 31 Oct 1985
Floyd’s runners will be scrutinized from the time they leave the bus until they cross the finish line at Friday’s Suffolk boys cross-country championship at Sunken Meadow State Park.
A traditionally swift team that has won six titles since Frank LaBianca began coaching in 1969, Floyd is ranked first in a poll by Suffolk coaches. Terry Pritcher will lead the Colonials, along with Cruz brothers Jimmy and Mark. Floyd has won the St. Anthony’s and Manhattan College Invitationals this season.
Practice sessions this week included sprint drills and motivational speeches. “I always talk about our tradition,” said LaBianca, who has a 90-11 dual meet record.
Longwood, with prominent junior Shawn Britton and freshman Kevin Krause, is likely to be Floyd’s closest challenger.
The individual to watch will be Bayport-Blue Point’s Eric Ostneburg, who has the fastest 5,000-meter time in Suffolk this season: 16 minutes, 26 seconds at Sunken Meadow.
Floyd Tops Longwood – Krause Wins Title
By David Shaw. Newsday, Combined editions; Long Island, N.Y. [Long Island, N.Y]. 02 Nov 1985
Floyd, Longwood tops
Floyd (46) and Longwood (62) finished first and second in the boys A race and qualified for the state competition. Defending county champion Floyd, third in the state last year, was led by Terry Pricher (4th in 16:36.4). Jim Cruz (7th in 16:55.6) and Sean Stevenson (10th in 17:06.5). “We told them to come and get us,” said Floyd coach Frank LaBianca. “We ran our race – no sneaking in and no hanging out in the back. Now we’re going for our fourth state championship.”
Longwood‘s Kevin Krause became the first freshman to win a county Class A race, edging teammate Shawn Brinton (16:33.9) and Smithtown East’s Mike Giovanniello (16:34.7). His 16:24.7 winning time was the best by a freshman in course history, erasing the mark set by Wantagh’s Mike Hedgecock (16:43.3) in 1983.
Freshman Kevin Krause of Longwood was first in the county Class A cross-country race last week, running the 5,000-meter Sunken Meadow State Park course in 16 minutes, 24.7 seconds – a freshman course record. Frank LaBianca, coach of team champion William Floyd, was not surprised. “He could be an all-timer; the greatest,” LaBianca said. “He reminds me of {late world class runner} Steve Prefontaine, a strong guy with a great cardio-vascular system.”
Longwood 2 Run Into Spotlight: [SUFFOLK Edition]
By Mark Herrmann. Newsday, 27 Nov 1985
Kevin Krause and Shawn Brinton of the Longwood cross-country team seem to have come out of nowhere to lead the pack. A year ago, Krause was not even the fastest runner on his junior high cross-country team. Brinton wasn’t even a runner.
But they both quickly achieved stunning results. Krause won the Suffolk Class A championship and Brinton finished second. “I was just hoping I’d be on the varsity this year,” said Krause, the first freshman to win the county title. He set a freshman record for the 5,000-meter Sunken Meadow State Park course on Nov. 1, finishing in 16 minutes, 24 seconds. “I never imagined anything like this,” he said.
Brinton, a junior, said that he decided to become a runner last December after coach Tony Toro invited him to try out for the winter track team. “Everyone took a physical fitness test in gym class, and he saw that I did well on that,” said Brinton, who ran 16:34 in the county championship and did even better in subsequent statewide meets.
Both runners said that their techniques improved dramatically under Toro’s direction. Toro said that both are gifted athletes who helped themselves with rigorous training programs.
Their performances helped lift their team, which rebounded from a 2-4 season in 1984 and won eight of nine dual meets this year. The Lions placed second, behind William Floyd High School, in team scoring at the county championship and finished fourth at the state championships in Binghamton Nov. 9.
The most riveting moment, though, probably came in the final 1,000 meters of the county meet, as Krause outraced Terry Pricher of Floyd and other favored entrants. The freshman said that he had hoped only to run steadily and break the 16:40 mark.
“All of a sudden, I was up there with Shawn and Pricher,” he said. “I figured I’d go for it. I had nothing to lose.”
Toro said that Krause has an exemplary cardio-vascular system that allows him to run consistently from first step to final kick. The coach, a two-time county champion when he was a student at Port Jefferson, added: “I was shocked when his mother told me he gets up at 5 o’clock every day to run. I didn’t tell him to do that. That’s something you can’t coach.”
“He could be an all-timer, the best ever,” Floyd coach Frank LaBianca said of Krause.
Krause realizes that his freshman triumph could be a heavy burden during the next three years. He knows of prodigies who showed potential but never realized it. “I’m going to keep listening to coach Toro. He won’t let that happen,” Krause said.
Brinton also is wary about impending expectations after his eighth-place finishes (in 16:12 and 16:32, respectively) at the state and federation championships. He plans to keep practicing techniques learned from Toro: focusing on taking shorter, quicker strides and controlling his arm movement.
“Shawn is just learning,” said Toro, a two-time county champion for Port Jefferson in the mid-1960s. “He’s going to get much, much better.”
Brinton figures that improvement is essential. “Look at us. We were nothing last year and we came up,” he said. “The same thing could happen to somebody else next year.”
