Valley Stream North pair runs to states

Kevin Beltran bet on himself when he decided to forgo soccer for the Valley Stream North cross-country team this fall. His choice could not have turned out any better.

Despite his inexperience, the junior is heading to the New York State Cross Country Championships this weekend after winning the Section 8 Class B event by almost four seconds last Saturday at Bethpage State Park. 

Joining Beltran in Syracuse will be senior Melissa Innocent, who finished fifth in the girls’ state qualifying race.

Beltran, who was a defender on the Spartans’ soccer team last year, completed the hilly course in 16 minutes, 11.09 seconds for his first victory since Sept. 28. He was coming off a second-place finish in the county championships on Oct. 29 with a time of 16:07.11, sandwiched between Calhoun runners Logan Schaeffler and Williams Hughes.

“Second place was rough,” VSN coach Tim Boyens said. “Beltran was really trying to go out and win the county championship. Now we do the state qualifier meet and [Schaeffler] is in the bigger school [race] and we’re in Class B and he won the race going away, which is really encouraging. I’m really excited to see what he can do upstate this weekend.”

How special was Beltran’s season? He broke the school record in his first-ever start with a time of 16:04.54 on Sept. 8 and made the wrong turn on the Bethpage course after taking a big lead during a race on Oct. 3 and still finished fourth. 

“It was only his second or third time running there, and he made a wrong turn because he was so far ahead of everybody,” Boyens said. “He was almost out on the Seaford-Oyster Bay [Expressway], let’s put it that way.”

Beltran has already received a recruitment letter from the University of Iowa.

“The sky’s the limit,” Boyens said. “You talk about being excited to see what a kid can do. He already holds all of the school records.”

Innocent was just as formidable and didn’t finish outside the top two until the state meet, where she had a berth at states just about sewn up. Her time of 19:25.35 at the county event was the second-fastest for a female competitor in school history.

“At the start, I could tell she was going to race well,” Boyens said. “She wasn’t nervous. She showed up at Bethpage ready to go and wasn’t intimidated by the other girls from South Side. She took the lead from them and held on the whole time.”

Beltran and Innocent breathed life into an underclassmen-laden team that was in a developmental year. Senior Elyas Layachi had a strong season, including a second-place finish on Oct. 3, and Boyens was excited about the futures of freshmen Mateusz Grabowski, Matteo Somma, Matthew Gangi and Michael Muoio.

Junior Emily Dahl finished among the top 10 for most of the season before nagging injuries hampered her down the stretch and Boyens said sophomore Manal Layachi could develop into “an outstanding runner” because of her work ethic.