Southold’s Devin Stanton using disappointment as motivation

Junior Devin Stanton was disappointed that she failed to reach the final round of the girls’ long jump at the New York State indoor track qualifiers on Tuesday night.

Afterwards, Southold/Greenport girls’ coach Tim McArdle gave her some advice.

“My message to her was, ‘Listen, you’re upset, you’re mad at yourself. Use it as motivation,’” he said. “This is motivation for spring. We gear up, take a week or two off. We rest. Hit the weight room, and we’re right back to work. We work on the next path to get to the states.”

Stanton had other ideas.

“I’ll train for outdoor starting tomorrow, [Wednesday,] and I will work towards it all the way until my season starts the first week of March,” she said.

When told of Stanton’s plans, McArdle smiled.

“She wants it. I’d rather her want it than not,” he said.

It was a difficult two days for North Fork athletes at Suffolk County Community College in Brentwood. No one qualified for the states at the Ocean Breeze Athletic Complex in Staten Island on March 6 and 7.

Stanton, who secured second place in the long jump (17 feet, 2 inches) at the Suffolk County small school championships at SCCC on Jan. 31, finished ninth on Tuesday, missing the top seven. Her best leap was 16 -7.75, 3.25 inches shy of the seventh-place finisher. Stanton fouled on her third and final attempt.

“I feel my run-throughs at first went pretty good,” she said. “It started going downhill. I think my technique was pretty good in the air, and my attitude was good going into it.”

Sachem East’s Bella Galeas won with a leap of 19-8.5.

McArdle felt Stanton wasn’t too far from putting it all together.

“She was running hard. She’s running strong,” he said. “She got good height. We just got to work on the fine-tuning technique of landing in the pit and getting every inch out of her. That was our biggest goal.”

Stanton said that she will continue with the long jump and run the 400 meters in the spring.

“I did pretty good in the 55 yesterday, so I will probably be trying the 100,” she added.

Ever Meyer, who captured the small schools title with a leap of 4-11, produced successful jumps at 4-6 and 4-8, but failed to clear 4-10 in three attempts.

“I was sloppy at the end,” she said. “I wasn’t finishing my jumps. I don’t think I was focused enough.”

Tuckers coach Chris Robinson thought Meyer started out well.

“Her first couple jumps looked good,” he said. “She had good speed. It’s a three-part jump, so we’ve got to make sure that she keeps putting all three phases of it together at the same time. She’ll do a couple here and then miss one. Sometimes, when you get to higher heights, you’ve got to really put it all together. It’s not something she can’t fix or correct.”

Commack’s Ella Osttling won the event with a leap of 5-3.

Meyers plans to compete in the pentathlon in the spring, after qualifying for the outdoor track championships last year.

“I get a little time off in between seasons, but I’ll still stay active,” she said.

Southold junior Liam O’Neil finished fifth in his heat in the 600-meter run in 1:31.98 and 23rd overall.

“Honestly, we weren’t sure if he was going make it because he wasn’t ranked as high as he wanted him to, but he got lucky. He did all right,” Southold boys coach Joe Corrado said. “He did as good as I expected him to. Was hoping he was going to have that kick on the final lap. He didn’t really get as much, because he’s putting so much more energy to stay close. I’m excited for him and Ryan Duffy, my first kids that made the qualifiers.”

On Monday, Duffy, a junior, took 20th overall in the 3200 in 10:21.72. Sophomore Ida Reiniger was 17th in the girls 55-high hurdles in 9.38. 

“It just shows that they can just stand up to the rest of anybody else on Long Island and Suffolk County,” Corrado said. “Seeing the experience of running with all the top kids, now they can mirror that and hopefully get better.”