Class C Tucker track athletes qualify for states
There was plenty of drama around three Class C Mattituck athletes at the Suffolk County track and field state qualifiers last week.
Would Rhianna Lutz and Ever Meyer score on their final long jump attempts to keep their hopes alive after fouling on their first two tries? Would Daniel Gamboa-Boutcher be able to defeat a favored rival in the boys triple jump?
All three did at Comsewogue High School June 5 and June 6 and will compete in the Class C division at the state track championships at Middletown High School on Friday, June 13, and Saturday, June 14.
They weren’t the only Tuckers’ athletes who will travel upstate. Senior Haley Lake (pole vault) and eighth-grader Rachel Kubetz (1,500 meters) clinched berths as well.
Mattituck will send five athletes to the states after the Class C division was added to give smaller schools more representation. “North Fork athletes are just working harder now,” boys coach Jordan McGinn said. “It’s just great to see it pay off.”
Girls coach Chris Robinson added, “Class C is a new way to get to states, which does help, for sure. I love it for these girls, because it’s an opportunity that maybe they might not have.”
Lutz, a senior, had fouled on all of her three attempts at the counties and was on a similar path after her first two at the state qualifiers. She then registered a 16-foot, 5-inch leap to reach the states. “I’m pretty happy with my jump,” Lutz said. “I should be very grateful since I got on my last jump, since I fouled the first two. After counties, I’m just glad that I even got to jump.”
Lutz had tears, tears of joy. “I went over to Rob [Robinson], and I just started crying because I’m just really glad that I was able to make it,” she said.
After the counties, Lutz admitted it was difficult. “It’s taken definitely a toll on me mentally, confidence-wise,” she said. “But I’ve been really putting the work in and trying to get back at it.”
Meyer, a sophomore, faced a similar situation while tackling the long jump in the fourth of her five events in the pentathlon. She also fouled on her first two attempts before recording a personal record of 15 feet. If she had fouled a third time, Meyer would have received zero points and would have jeopardized her hopes. “There would have been no states,” she said. “That was a big moment in that PR series.”
Meyer, who finished fifth overall in the pentathlon (2,327 points), said she planned to push herself to the limit this weekend. “I’m not just happy I made it to the states,” she said. “I want to literally destroy my best ever. I want to put everything I have there. It’s hard for me to say I did good. I’m really strict on myself. Today wasn’t good. I can do better.”
Gamboa-Boutcher not only leaped to a personal record of 42-4 in the triple jump, the senior obliterated his personal record by more than 4 feet. “His first jump wasn’t his best. His second jump was better,” Mr. McGinn said. “Then we said, ‘Hey, if you want to go to state, it’s all out here.’ He locked in. Everything he did was perfect. We couldn’t be more proud of him.”
Gamboa-Boutcher, who took up track this year, outjumped Port Jefferson’s Evan Monaghan (41-6.5), the favorite.
Lake, who performed at last year’s state championship, had the best pole vault of the Class C competitors at eight feet. Robinson was proud that Lake battled back from a high ankle sprain she suffered five weeks ago. “They told her she’d be out for 10 weeks,” he said. “She kept working. I didn’t doubt that she could physically get back, and she did. I’m happy for her, another senior, getting to finish her career at the highest level.”
Kubetz, an eighth grader and the youngest Tucker to qualify, finished 18th overall in the 1,500. She was the best Class C finisher with a personal-best (5:12.26). “She pushed through a great cross-country season,” Robinson said. “She was winning in winter track and then coming out here for the first time on a varsity program as an eighth grader, to compete at this kind of setting, she did exactly what we wanted her to do.”
