Ward Melville boys cross country team reaches Nike Cross Nationals at state Federation championships
Ward Melville's Anthony Anatol crosses the finish line in the boys state Federation cross country championships at Bowdoin Park in Wappingers Falls on Saturday. Credit: Kelly Marsh
WAPPINGERS FALLS — The Ward Melville boys cross country program entered the 2024 season having not been to a state championship meet in five decades. Fifteen months later, the Patriots are going to a national championship meet.
Ward Melville scored 149 points to place second at the state Federation championships at Bowdoin Park Saturday. The finish qualified them for Nike Cross Nationals, scheduled for Dec. 6 at Glendoveer Golf Course in Oregon.
Reaching Nike’s national meet has been the program’s goal since last November, when the team had a decent showing at the 2024 Federation meet. However, that goal was set in jest, as it was thought to be so unrealistic and lofty for a program that was coming off its first trip to a state meet since the 1970s.
Now, it’s a reality.
“Last year, we were here and we were joking about qualifying for nationals, because we all knew it wasn’t a possibility,” senior Anthony Anatol said. “We didn’t have the depth or the times, we weren’t a strong pack. But over the last year, and this past summer, we changed that mentality and set our minds to it. Now that we’ve actually accomplished it, words can’t even describe this feeling.”
Anatol led the crew, placing ninth in 16 minutes, 6.1 seconds on the 5-kilometer course. He was the second finisher from Long Island behind Manhasset senior Blake Sealy, who was seventh in 16:03.6.
Ward Melville junior Andrew Senf ran 16:26.4 to take 16th place overall and 10th among the 207 runners in the team competition. Teammate Luke Jantzen was 30th (16:55.3) in the team-scoring category.
Jantzen, like Anatol, was a lifelong soccer player before switching to cross country last fall.
“I was just so used to being a soccer player, and a solid one at that, but I never would’ve imagined that I would be here today,” Jantzen said. “I had been dreaming of this moment. That’s what pushed me to get to where we are now.”
Junior Matteo Ritieni finished in 17:03.8 to take 36th in the team portion of the event, and classmate Pepe Van Der Velden punched the team’s ticket to the national meet by taking the 65th spot in 17:29 flat.
Van Der Velden is not typically the team’s fifth runner, but he needed to step up and earn team points from the fifth spot, as Ritieni and classmate Ty Buonomo were recovering from illnesses and not running at full strength. Van Der Velden passed 31 runners — most of whom were competing for team points — during the second half of the race, which was exactly what the Patriots needed.
“The coaches told me the fifth guy matters, I matter, all those placements matter,” Van Der Velden said. “It felt amazing. There was a little bit of extra pressure, but it helped me having that one goal in my mind. This is definitely one of the best moments of my life so far.”
Buonomo (17:35.1) and senior Asher Tu (17:49 flat) rounded out Ward Melville’s effort.
North Rockland, led by winner Claudel Marc Chery (15:41.7), took the team title with 124 points.
In the girls’ race, Long Island placed four of the top seven. Three individuals qualified for the Nike national meet: Eastport-South Manor junior Maddie Laezza (third place, 17:56.3), Bay Shore senior Maggie McCormick (fifth, 17:58.8) and Northport freshman Fiona King (sixth, 18:03.5).
King was 11th in the merged results at the public school state championships in Queensbury last week. With a berth to Nike Cross Nationals her goal since middle school, she was not about to let that opportunity slip.
“I think last week at states, I was a little scared and I just didn’t put everything I had out there,” King said. “Today, I just wanted to leave it all out there, do the best I possibly could and see where that put me. I was a lot more confident in this race and ran up to my full potential.”
Shenendehowa, led by winner Leyla Bhusri (17:40.4), took the team crown (106).
Mike Anderson is a high school sports reporter who has covered 12 sports so far at Newsday. He was the sports editor of Stony Brook University's campus newspaper for two years.
