Boys Track and Field: SWR trots off with league title

Usually when a team has to take a lap it is for punishment.

On Wednesday, the Shoreham-Wading River boys track and field team took a lap, but it was voluntary.

The Wildcats were celebrating their first league championship in four years as they defeated visiting Miller Place, 93-48, at Thomas Cutinella Memorial Field to take home the Suffolk County League VI title.

Their victory lap was led by junior Joey Krause, who ran with an American flag to celebrate the occasion.

“It was a lot of fun,” said senior captain Ray LaPorte, who added no one had problems taking that lap. “It was all excitement. We were all ready to go.”

The win lifted the Wildcats to a 5-0 overall and in the league as they beat Miller Place (4-1, 4-1) in the final dual meet of the season.

Joe Mordarski, in his first season as Shoreham’s coach, could not have been prouder of his team.

“My feeling going into the season is we had a lot of talent spread out throughout a lot of events,” he said. “We’re a very small school, but we packed a lot of talent into our student-athletes. For me, it’s more about my character here. They come out, they’re gentlemen and they know how to compete.”

LaPorte agreed and elaborated.

“It says every single kid on this team put in the work they had to do,” he said. “They knew how they had to run, what places they needed to get. They all put in the work to pull out a championship this year.

“I’m very proud of all of them. They all knew what they had to do. They all did it.”

Junior Luke Rey paced Shoreham by winning two individual events and being part of a relay team. He captured the 100-meter dash in 10.9 seconds and the 200 meters in 23.0 while helping the 4 x 100 relay team to victory. Rey ran the second leg along with Damien Caputo, Anthony Guzzone and Dylan Jung.

The Wildcats swept the long jump as Rickie Casazza won with a leap of 20 feet, 6 1/2 inches. He was followed by Danny Montenegro (20-1 1/2) and Jung (19-8). Casazza also prevailed in the high jump with a leap of 6-6.

Guzzone also won the 400 intermediate hurdles in 51.47 seconds.

Matt Rose captured the shot put and Ryan Ledda secured the pole vault. Their distances were not available.