HIGH SCHOOL NOTEBOOK Title Run Begins at Longwood: [EAST END Edition]

By Joe Krupinski. STAFF WRITER. Newsday, Combined editions; Long Island, N.Y. [Long Island, N.Y]. 20 Sep 1992

There is a large sign at the entrance to Longwood that proclaims: “This Is Lions Country,” a reference to the nickname of the school’s athletic teams.

A similar sign may be appropriate at Sunken Meadow State Park, where Longwood’s boys and girls cross-country runners do some of their best work and where Section XI will host the state championshipsNov. 14.

Longwood’s boys will try to win their fifth county title in six years (Centereach interrupted the string in 1989) and repeat the state championship it earned in 1990. That’s the same year Longwood’s girls won their second consecutive county title and finished fifth in the state. The Lions will test their roar at Saturday’s Suffolk Coaches Invitational Meet at Sunken Meadow.

Last fall Longwood’s individual county Class A champion, Dan Murphy (16:42.8), apparently finished third in the state meet but was disqualified for allegedly elbowing another runner at the finish line, which cost the Lions their second straight state title. Murphy is now running for Clemson.

But the Lions, who still wound up fifth in the state without the benefit of Murphy’s score, are coming back strong, led by junior Dan Stevenson (the second Class A finisher in the county meet and 17th in the state), plus seniors Tony Jackowski, Mike Henderson,Steve Gabriel and Adam Jacobson and juniors Adam Roman and Keenan Reader.

Of all Suffolk opponents, Sachem has the best shot at taming the Lions behind three experienced seniors, Steve Phillips, Andrew DeRose and Ron Zaczynsky.

Boys Varsity C Race: 1. Alex Pflugfelder, Calhoun, 17:09.3; Dan Stevenson, Longwood, 17:23.1; Paul Blodorn, Mercy, 17:23.4; Gared Katzman, Herricks, 17:35.4; Jim Gerhart, Suffern, 17:43.4; Frank Gagliano, Suffern, 17:45.7; Mike Maceiko, Deerp Park, 17:47.1. Team Scores: Suffern 45, Longwood 84, Calhoun 120, Deer Park 160, Smithtown 168.

Boys Cross Country

Bellport 20, Bay Shore 37; Connetquot 22, Northport 34; Commack 24, Ward Melville 33; Deer Park 18, Huntington 45; Half Hollow Hills East 19, Whitman 40; Half Hollow Hills West 24, Islip 34; Half Hollow Hills West 25, Glenn 33; Kings Park 19, Harborfields 40; Mercy 15, Port Jefferson 35; Middle Country 27, Longwood 30; Mount Sinai 20, Bayport-Blue Point 38; North Babylon 18, West Islip 43; Sachem 20, Floyd 42; Shoreham-Wading River 27, Sayville 28; Smithtown 20, Lindenhurst 49 – Oct. 14

HIGH SCHOOLS Cardiac’s Challenge: [NASSAU AND SUFFOLK Edition]

Valenti, John. Newsday, Combined editions; Long Island, N.Y. [Long Island, N.Y]. 13 Nov 1992

IT IS OUT THERE, WAITING. Almost two miles in, five yards wide, 188 yards long, rising from the woods and underbrush, up, up, up – a terror to anyone who ever has tested it. No less than Mark Belger, who went from Mepham to Villanova and almost to the Olympics – finishing fourth in the 800 meters in the U.S. Trials in 1976 – once was found walking it during a race. It was the logical choice, he thought, having met it face-to-face and concluding anything else was absurd.

Who could argue with such logic?

After all, lesser men – and women – have done as much over the years when confronted with their own demise on the hill known as Cardiac. They do it because of how it causes legs to burn, hearts to race, minds to ponder one good question, like: What am I doing here? They do it because, as Suffolk boys cross-country chairman Mike Schwenk said, “Unless you’ve run here, you’ve never seen anything like this.”

“Here” is Sunken Meadow State Park, where tomorrow almost 1,000 boys and girls from 11 sections around the state will run in six separate races for the Class A, B and C state cross-country championship. And the reason you’ve never seen anything like it is only partly because of the presence of Cardiac Hill – perhaps the most notorious race hill in the state.

“You have to know the course, have to understand it,” Longwood coach Tony Toro said. “Some kids go out too fast and pay for it later. Some kids go out too slow and let the leaders get away from them. If you’re not strong – and that is physically and mentally – it is over for you. People all talk about Cardiac Hill. But, it isn’t only that. This is the most demanding course in the state.”

The names alone intimidate. There are The Gun, The Moat, The Mousehole, Snake Hill, Hernia Hill, Shelley Road, Criss-Cross Corner, The Picnic Area, The Sound Barrier and The Grotto. And, all that comes before a runner can even think about the prospects of Cardiac Hill, which rises about 200-250 feet in 188 yards and is only two miles into the 3.1-mile race. It doesn’t take into account the zig-zag through The Meadow, does not take into account The Sand Pit or the run on the flats out to The Finish Line. It doesn’t take into account the psychology, the physiology, the mental roller-coaster that is Sunken Meadow.

“Brutal” and “demanding” is the way Bill Shelley, a runner at Bishop Loughlin in the late 1940s who went on to Villanova, described it. Shelley maintains the course as the cross-country coordinator for Sunken Meadow. He named most of the course highlights. Shelley Road honors him. “Other courses have more difficult spots,” he said. “But one of the reasons this course is so tough is it combines so many difficult elements, so many tough spots.”

Van Cortlandt Park has Cemetery Hill. But it is not used in public high school competition. Bear Mountain has difficult elements. So does the course at New York Tech. Most other courses around the state, experts agree, are either wooded or rolling. Or flat. Built for speed. Or strength. Sunken Meadow? It demands both.

“The way the course is laid out, the first three-quarters of a mile is flat,” said Middle Country coach Harry Schneider. “And kids tend to go out and run it as if it is a flat course. Then, they come around The Moat and hit Snake Hill and Hernia Hill. Even then, some think that the bad part is over. But out there is Cardiac. And, even if you know how to run it, run the course, it still is very, very difficult because of where it is in the course. Everybody has to do it and everybody is going to be tired. And whoever is willing to live with that fatigue is going to win. That simple.”

Simple? Well, maybe not. The state meet was last held here in 1974. And, though Port Jefferson coach Tom Putnam claims that 54,248 runners have tested Sunken Meadow in some 35 conference and county championships and 47 invitational meets since 1977, only 20 boys have finished the course in under 16 minutes. Only 26 girls have finished in under 19 minutes. St. Anthony’s John Gregorek set the boys mark of 15:32.3 in 1977. Mepham’s Christine Curtin set the girls record in 1981, finishing in 18:07.5.

Out of The Gun, the start, there is a long run alongside The Moat, Sunken Meadow Creek, and then across a man-made dirt bridge between the creek and a tidal pool. The wide-open space becomes claustrophobic here, as runners move into the woods down a dirt trail that is maybe five yards wide. Up Snake Hill, a long, winding incline that overlooks the Sound, runners run. Suddenly, there is Hernia Hill – a dramatic, righthand-sweeping hairpin on lose dirt that spins 40 feet upwards in a matter of 150 feet, then launches runners into an equally fast-falling gully. Down Snake Hill and into Criss-Cross Corner, runners find themselves in the Picnic Area – where thousands of fans scream and cheer. This is the Sound Barrier, and what makes it so dramatic is that, after a quarter-mile loop through the area, runners face The Grotto – a sudden, silent wooded area that takes them toward Cardiac. Cardiac is steep. And long. And though the rest of the course from here on is downhill, it is easy to lose yourself – and, your race – if you are not tough enough here.

“Every year, we take freshmen who have not run the course, have them go out with a varsity runner and tell them that Hernia is Cardiac and the reaction is, `Whew! That was tough,’ after they run it,” Schneider said. “Then, when the varsity is done laughing, they take those kids through the rest of the course and show them the real Cardiac. You should see some of the reactions.”

Schneider, whose kids have even designed T-shirts with a blow-by-blow account of the course, will even mill around wearing them in front of other runners – hoping the shirts instill some kind of fear in them. “It’s waiting for me,” the shirt cautions.

It’s true. It is. And tomorrow the best runners from around the state will learn that the hard way. One step at a time.