Mattituck runner Kubetz sets personal record to lead the pack at qualifiers

Rachel Kubetz had won dual meet races before Monday afternoon, but certainly not anything like this.

For the first time, she wasn’t following the leader.

Instead, the Mattituck High School freshman was the leader of the pack at the Suffolk County girls’ individual qualifier at Sunken Meadow State Park in Kings Park.

As she crossed the finish line first, a smiling Kubetz raised her arms in triumph. She ran a personal best of 22 minutes, 6.9 seconds in the five-kilometer Class C race.

“I’ve never won a race this big,” she said. “I have won the dual meets, but I haven’t won something as big or as cool as this.”

Especially since she was the leading runner.

Kubetz understood the positives and negatives of being first.

“It can be a give or a take,” she said. “It’s hard because I don’t have anyone to chase, no one to keep pace with, but having someone like almost on your tail gives you that motivation to win. You really want to win.”

Which she did.

“I felt very strong,” Kubetz said. “Everyone here ran really well today.”

Even before the race began, the ninth-grader had an inkling that it was going to be a memorable afternoon.

“Based on the warm-up, I can always tell if it’s going to be a good or a bad day,” she said. “After we came out of the gate and we were about to cross the bridge, I felt like it was going to be a really good day.”

With the state qualifiers scheduled for Sunken Meadow on Thursday, Nov. 13, Kubetz will enter that competition with more self-assurance.

“It gives me a lot of confidence going into it, knowing that I can do well that day, and that I’ve run the course, I’ve won this race,” she said. “I’m very excited.”

Temperatures were in the mid-50s on a sunny day without any wind, but the environment was a bit dry for the freshman.

“It wasn’t too hot or too cold, but it was very dry,” she said. “I’m still coughing.”

Kubetz then coughed just a bit.

“There’s so much dust in the air,” she said. “This actually happened last year at state quals, too, except it was much hotter. There’s so much dust. It makes it a little bit harder to breathe.”

Mattituck coach Chris Robinson said that he was very encouraged by Kubetz’s performance.

“We sometimes forget she is still a ninth-grader,” he said. “For her, the confidence part is important, because nerves get in the way, and a little bit of stress from just the competition part of it. If you can have a run like this, where you know your confidence gets a little jolt, and you know your time is now reflecting your work, it’s all good stuff heading into [the qualifiers].

“We always talk about trying to peak at the right time, and she’s right there,” he added. “So hopefully next week, it’s even better, and hopefully we send some people up to states.”

Kubetz knows all about peaking at the right time.

“I’m going to keep practicing, keep training, running, taking a few, maybe a day or two off, but I’ll keep training hard because I want to come back and go to states,” she said.

As an eighth-grader last year, Kubetz competed at the state championships.

“I want to PR,” she said, referring to a personal record. “It would be awesome if I was able to go to states and PR. And it would be very awesome to have the boys’ team there, too. I would really like that.”

The Tuckers boys acquitted themselves well on Monday, finishing first in Class C and 13th overall among all schools. They took 13th place with 339 points. Bayport-Blue Point (80) was the overall winner.

Marlowe Collamore paced the squad (19:00) with an 11th-place finish. Following him were Logan Carr (20:22.2) 56th, E. Daniel Galvez (20:45.3) 73rd, Jacob Malkush (21:17.4) 97th and Tyler Malkush (21:25.2, 102nd). Two other runners competed but did not accrue points — Montgomery Lang (12:40.2), 109th, and Gavyn Drago (21:57.3), 118th.

“I think we will have our best showing next week, but I think this was a very good run for us collectively,” Robinson said. “We all looked good. The top seven looked pretty good.”