Southold’s Duffy breaks two school records in one week

Just what are the odds of anyone breaking not one, but two school cross country records, both by one second, within a week? It’s probably difficult to calculate, but that’s what Ryan Duffy accomplished in two competitions.

On Oct. 21, the Southold High School junior broke the school record for a five-kilometer run at Mashashimuet Park in Sag Harbor, besting the mark of 16 minutes, 53 seconds by a second that was set by Owen Klipstein a decade ago.

Then on Monday afternoon, Oct. 27, Duffy eclipsed Klipstein’s Sunken Meadow State Park record as he was timed over a more unforgiving course in 17:55, at the Suffolk County divisional meet in Kings Park on Monday afternoon.

“I’m going to start setting my watch to him,” coach Karl Himmelmann said with a laugh, commenting how close to the edge Duffy was in setting new records.

Then he got serious.

“It’s well deserved,” Himmelmann said. “He’s been just working hard every day since they’re never taking their foot off the gas.”

After crossing the finish line, Duffy was ecstatic.

“I’m really pumped on how I did today,” he said. “I think it definitely gives me a great chance to go to states unless something unforeseen happens, but it’s really just setting me up to see what I can do and giving me experience for next week.”

Next week would be Thursday, Nov. 6, in the state qualifiers at the same venue. The states are set for Queensbury High School upstate on Saturday, Nov. 15.

At Sunken Meadow, Duffy got off to a good start.

“We went out really quick,” he said. “I was trying not to get boxed in. My first mile was really fast. Those hills were very punishing today. I was slowing down on them, and they were tough.”

It certainly didn’t hurt that the weather was near perfect for many runners. Temperatures were in the mid-50s with sunny skies and very little wind.

“I thought it was very nice today,” Duffy said. “If I was picky, maybe a few degrees warmer than I would have liked, but for this type of race, this time of year, it’s great.”

Instead of competing in the team race with the rest of his teammates, Duffy ran in the championship division against some of the top runners in the county from larger schools. It was quite a challenge and a learning experience.

“It’s definitely very eye-opening compared to other races I’m a part of, because you get to see the best of every school and how you stack up against them,” he said. “You just get to see how you compare to everybody in the county and those who are competitive at states.”

Because he ran in a separate race from his teammates, Duffy got a rare opportunity to be a spectator and cheer on his Settlers teammates in the team division later in the afternoon.

“We always run together,” he said. “This is my first race not running with them. So, it’s definitely a big change. Obviously, the girls’ races, I always see them, but I’m just excited to see how they do. I’m excited to cheer them all.”

There was plenty to cheer for.

Southold (351 points) finished 14th out of 35 teams. Liam O’Neill (19:47.5) led the way, taking 11th place 19:47.5, followed by William Sommo (19:51) 34th, Kyan Olsen (20:11.2) 53rd, Kai Bossen (21:33.8) 106th, and Kevin Collins (22:23.2) 127th. Bayport-Blue Point (80) took first.

Emily Kaelin completed the girls’ race in 23:04, and Greenport’s Isabella Sarabia was timed in at 28:20.40.

“I know we definitely had at least two or three personal bests for the season,” Himmelmann said. “They got off to a little bit of a slow start, but they picked things up along the race and made up a lot of time along as they went along. So now I’m satisfied with, really how everybody did today.”

“We’re trying to get as many individual qualifiers for the states as possible. If Port Jefferson ends up winning the county championship for Class D, it’s the next five fastest individuals from Class D will go. So that’s largely between us and Pierson. We’d like to try to snag as many of those as possible. Our boys and girls have really worked hard all season, and I think they’re ready to have a great race next week.”