‘Confusing’ course turns meet into an adventure for Southold runners

The Southampton High cross country team wasn’t the only opponent that Southold had to deal with on a beautiful Tuesday afternoon.

The Settlers were forced to run on a course without some proper markings for directions at Red Creek Park in Hampton Bays.

That turned into an adventure and a half for several runners as their times wound up way out of whack compared to their usual finishes in Suffolk County League VIII meets.

“There were a lot of markings down,” junior Will Sommo said. “It was overall kind of confusing to run.”

Sommo finished the 5-kilometer course with a team-best in 21 minutes, 54 seconds, well off his personal record of 19 minutes and 49 seconds at Sunken Meadow State Park earlier this season.

“It definitely felt like an off day,” he said. “For me, it was a lot of wrong turns today. I feel great, pretty much the whole time. I still got it done.”

He might have run six or seven kilometers for Southold (3-1).

Asked when he figured out something was amiss, Sommo replied, “When I was in front of Ryan Duffy. He’s our best runner. I hope to be as good as him, though, but it was definitely confusing.”

Sommo, who finished third overall in a 24-31 team loss, wasn’t the only Settler who had a problem. Duffy (23:19), who was second Southold boys runner, took fifth place overall, did as well.

As did junior Emily Kaelin, who was clocked in 24:33 in the girls’ race. That was compared to her best time of 22:13 on the same course at an invitational earlier this year. There were proper markings on the course then.

“Not my best, for sure. Had a lot of injuries. My foot was hurting and I didn’t stretch very well. I was feeling it at the race. I also took a wrong turn,” she said with a laugh. “I didn’t go too far out of the way, so it wasn’t as bad as everyone else.”

But …

“Yeah, it was a little confusing,” Kaelin added.                

Afterwards, Southold coach Karl Himmelmann gave his team a pep talk, reminding the runners that the afternoon was an anomaly. 

“Obviously, this was definitely not the way I envisioned this race going at the outset,” he told the Suffolk Times. “But this is like life. Sometimes things happen that are totally out of your control, no matter how much you tried to plan and get it all your ducks in a row. Sometimes there’s a duck that just gets out of the row and fouls things up.

“We had some kids that got a little misdirected on the course. It ended up affecting their race and their times. But it doesn’t take away from the quality of this team. This is a really strong team, and it doesn’t take away from the quality of their character, because this is a team with really young men and women with great character.”

Girls coach Denise McKeon, whose team dropped a 15-50 decision to Southampton, agreed and elaborated.

“For our girls, it was not their best time either,” she said. “But it is a technically challenging course. But we’re still satisfied with how they did. It was still a great opportunity for them to push hard and work hard and have that race experience on a hilly course … because that is going to be what they will have for the state qualifiers at Sunken Meadow.”

Other top boys finishers for Southold were Aidan Volosik (23:37) in sixth, Kyan Olsen (23:57) in eighth and Liam O’Neil (24:07) in ninth. Southampton’s (3-2) Matt Cook won the race in 21:32.

Besides Kaelin, Isabella Sarabia (28:07) was the other girls’ entry.

The Settlers will have plenty of opportunities to bounce back with three more regular season encounters, all away. They will meet Bayport-Blue on Oct. 7, Port Jefferson on Oct. 14 and Pierson and Babylon on Oct. 21. The division championships are scheduled for Sunken Meadow on Oct. 27, with the county championships and state qualifiers for the same venue on Nov. 6.

“The thing that is going to be another indicator of the high quality of this team is how they come back from this,” Himmelmann said. “They’re resilient. So, I have no doubt in my mind, and I think coach McKeon would agree with me that we’ll come back tomorrow and they will be right there, ready to go and ready to put forth 100% effort.”