Southold, Greenport junior track stars savor success in State tournament

The odds of athletes from the same, small, rural high school team standing on the winners’ podium of the New York State track and field championships might be too long to even calculate.

But juniors Olivia Misiukiewicz and Cameron Stanton of the Southold/Greenport squad accomplished just that.

Misiukiewicz finished second in Division II (small schools) in the high jump, while Stanton took fourth place in the long jump as they earned all-state honors in the early June competition.

Securing such accolades doesn’t happen every year. The last Southold/Greenport track athlete to achieve all-state status was Emily Russell, who finished third in the pentathlon in 2019.

“Both of us being all-state from a small town like Southold is just incredible,” said Stanton, who used the adjectives “amazing” and “great” to describe the achievement.

It would be difficult to argue with her.

Having competed last year at the state finals helped Misiukiewicz this time around. She admitted she had more nerves back then.

“I was rattled to see everybody there,” she remembered. “I was so nervous. But this year I just wanted to get in the top three. I just really wanted to perform well. I didn’t really think about the competition. I thought about myself high jumping and competing. I think that really helped me focus and dial in.”

Which she did, with a leap of 5 feet, 3 inches on her first attempt, good enough to take runner-up honors in Division II.

“I had to jump five-three on my first try,” she said. “If I didn’t, it would be a huge difference. That was the biggest pressure jumping on my first try. When I did jump, it was just a sigh of relief. I was so happy. It was just the greatest feeling. I just had the biggest smile.”

Besides some quality competition, Stanton needed to overcome another obstacle — rain, which pushed back the start of the long jump for 2 1/2 hours.

“That day was so long,” she said. “I was so tired. The conditions were awful. It was pouring rain. It was cold. But just the adrenaline from being there allowed me to jump well. I jumped 17 feet, 5 1/2 inches, which was still a great jump for me.”

Considering Stanton was ranked 10th in the state coming into the competition, securing fourth place was no small feat.

“It was surreal going into it,” she said. “I was shooting for the podium. But I was like, if I don’t make it, it’s not a big deal. I’m just happy to be here. I knew that I deserved it once I was up there. This is what this should feel like for me because I’ve put in the work.”

Both girls are similar in their work ethic and are quite coachable. They take their sport seriously, although they have different personalities when competing.

“What makes Cameron so special as an athlete is she’s fiery,” head coach Tim McArdle said. “She wants to win at all costs. She’s not okay with third. She’s not okay with second. She wants first and she will do everything in her power to get there next year.

“Olivia has much more of an upbeat personality when it comes to competing,” he added. “She wants to see the other girls she goes against do well. She keeps it more reserved. She’s more about competing against herself than competing against other people. She just has this innate ability to jump really high. It’s really special and she wants to continue working on her skill.”

Both athletes will compete in another sport as seniors this fall — Stanton in soccer and Misiukiewicz in tennis — before jumping back into track in the winter and spring.

Not surprisingly, McArdle foresees continued success for the girls.

“The future is very bright for both,” he said. “Both are going to come in ranked towards the top of the state Division II going into next season. A lot of the girls they competed against were seniors. There are some underclassmen as well. But they’re definitely going to be highly sought after and ranked towards the top going into the winter and spring season next year. So, expectations are going to be extremely high for them.”