Blue Devil Girls’ Cross Country is Promising
With its fortunes clearly rising, this fall’s girls’ cross country team at Huntington High School is young but promising. Early results have been impressive and head coach Debra Cheskes is confident more success is on the horizon.
At the Jim Smith Invitational, the Blue Devils finished fourth in a field of 15 teams. Huntington was led by Celine Takekoshi, who placed eighth. Amber Lindner (19th) and Margaret Petryk (31st) also rank strong races. “The first race is always the hardest and I’m so proud of how well the girls ran,” Cheskes said.
In the league opener against Comsewogue, Takekoshi took a commanding lead from the start of the race and increased it over the three-mile course at Sunken Meadow State Park en route to a first place effort. She crossed the line in 22:29. Linder and Petryk finished second and third, respectively, and Kerri-Ann Giambruno was fourth.
Captain Gabby Mitchell, the only veteran on the team, held onto seventh place to clinch the Blue Devils’ 17-38 victory. (In cross country the team with the lowest score wins.)
“From the first half-mile through the finish, the girls dominated the course,” Cheskes said. Sunken Meadow is the site for all league meets. The course there requires runner to ascend the dreaded Cardiac hill. It’s renowned as the hardest such course in the state.
“These first few races have set the tone for a very promising for this young team,” Cheskes said.
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