This season, the Ward Melville Boys and Girls cross country teams are league champions, marking another victory on the long list of wins for each team. 

League teams include Walt Whitman, Sachem East, Sachem North, Bayshore, Riverhead, and Commack. Most of the dual meets took place at Sunken Meadow, giving the runners plenty of opportunities to improve times and achieve personal records on the five kilometer course throughout the season. 

Both the girls’ and boys’ teams also attended a few invitationals. The boys team ran at the Bob Pratt Invitational, with the varsity team placing second and the junior varsity team placing first. The girls team raced at the Suffolk Coaches Invitational meet, with both varsity and junior varsity teams placing first. In addition, both teams raced at the St.Anthony’s and Manhattan College meets. 

Towards the end of the season, when the runners ran in the division championship, the boys team placed third, and the girls team placed first in their respective races. From the girls team, sophomore Amanda Probst placed fifth in the race, qualifying for the state championship meet. She ran a time of 20:15:60.  Also, the boys junior varsity team placed second, and the girls junior varsity team placed first.

Congratulations to seniors Jonathan Bussa, Matthew Constantino, Cameron Costa, James Flockhart, Daniel Hallisey, Linus Hsieh-Beatty, David Huang, Shey McCoy, Andrew Nicholson, John Nicholson, Christian Powell, Justin Ronzoni, Andrew Smith, Daniel Smith, Julian Smith, Paul Tommolino, Ryan Tucker, and Ari Zucker from the boys team, and seniors Alexis Bell, Julia Bell, Katelyn Giordano, Victoria Laguerre, Laura Liebowitz, Riley Meckley, and Brooke Ronca from the girls team for running an outstanding final cross country season. 

With the conclusion of this season, many of the runners are eagerly gearing up for the winter track season with windbreakers, gloves, leggings, (or just shorts for some). As the fall season was very successful, it is exciting to see what this winter season will bring.