Oceanside track impresses at counties

The Oceanside track and field team turned plenty of heads at the Section 8 Class A competition thanks to the boys’ legs and the girls’ arms.

The second-place boys’ team fell just five points shy of the county title at St. Anthony’s High School on Feb. 5 with 60 points, which was seven better than their fifth-place showing at last year’s event. The girls placed sixth, one point behind Massapequa.

In an unprecedented moment, each side managed to sweep the podium in an event on the same night. The top three boys in the 1,600-meter run all put up season-best times, led by senior James Kerber (4 minutes, 32.09 seconds) and juniors Tyler DeCiantis (4:37.71) and Tristan Cuevas (4:38.58), while the girls pulled it off in the shot put behind junior Brianna Cinamon (34 feet, 5.75 inches), sophomore Erin Murray (33-1.5) and senior Jordana Halpern (32-7.25).

“The cool thing was the girls going 1-2-3 in the shot and the boys going 1-2-3 in the mile,” coach Mike Howley said. “That does not happen, especially in County 1 [with] the biggest and best schools. For Oceanside to go 1-2-3 on the girls side and the boys side in two different events, this has got to be the first time in school history or as long as I’ve been there.”

Kerber also became the county champ in the 3,200-meter race when he went coast-to-coast for the win, just like he did in the mile.

“He’s been locked in since the summer,” Howley said. “He really made it a point to not just win, but to be as dominant as he could be at any race. He likes to run from the front and just go out and make it his.”

DeCiantis was third in the 3,200 and freshman Jonathan Davi placed fifth with a season-best time of 10:04.93.

Junior Cole Rinn rallied for a fourth-place finish in the 1,000-meter run after being seventh at the 600-meter mark and the Sailors’ relay teams combined for 12 points on the strength of three top-five finishes.

Junior Riley Moylan enjoyed a pair of second-place finishes in the long and triple jumps to boost the girls. In the former event, Moylan fouled twice on her earlier attempts before leaping a distance of 16-10.5 on her fifth try.

“She’s matured a lot,” Howley said. “People know who she is [and] she's had a lot of success. When you're new and there's no expectations, it's easy, but when there are expectations, you have to prepare yourself for that and she's done a good job of being able to just pick yourself up when the pressure’s there.”

Junior Juliana Targowski was fourth in the triple jump with a distance of 32-5.25 and senior Sasha Biryukov was sixth at 31-5.5. The 4x200 relay team of junior Samantha Friedman, Targowski, senior Cassie Lucero and freshman Joanna Byrne picked up two points after finishing fifth.