Familiar Coach to Lead Blue Devil Girls’ Cross Country

Elizabeth Andersen is returning as the Huntington High School girls’ cross country coach after a season away from the team for child care related reasons. The Blue Devil runners are happy she is back in their ranks. Planning for summer training has been underway for weeks.

A meeting will be held tomorrow (Tuesday) after school in the gym for students interested in running on next fall’s girls’ and boys’ teams. (The boys’ team will be coached by John Romano.)

Mrs. Andersen has been a Huntington physical education teacher since September 2015.

A graduate of East Islip High School, she obtained a Bachelor’s of Science degree in physical education at SUNY Cortland with a concentration in adaptive learning and a master’s degree in health education at West Virginia University.

Huntington freshman Kiley Barch paced the Blue Devil varsity girls’ cross country team last fall. The teenager’s best time saw her cover the 2.5 mile race course in 18:31. Barch closed out the season by earning Second Team All-League honors.

The Blue Devils finished third in six team Suffolk League III with wins over Half Hollow Hills East, Lindenhurst and North Babylon and losses to Northport and Connetquot.

The roster also included freshmen Mabelin Maldonado Licona and Kiera McGuire and juniors Cindy Alvarez, Jessica Kuom, Damaris Mani-Munoz, Andrea Mani-Munoz and Jannel Marroquin. The team will lose senior Talia Addeo to graduation later this month. However, with the top six runners returning after a third place league finish, the future looks bright.

Current eighth graders Julia Goodwin and Piper Davis are expected to bolster the Blue Devils’ ranks. Goodwin excelled at Finley Middle School last fall, finishing in second place in one meet; third place in two contests and fourth place twice. She was 30th in a field of 171 at the Sunken Meadow Invitational, which serves as a kind of informal county middle school championship. Davis finished third in one race and fourth in another. She was 37th at Sunken Meadow.

Several varsity runners from the winter and spring track teams who hadn’t previously run on the fall cross country team are reportedly considering joining the squad, which will make it even tougher.

Interested in running with the Blue Devils? Attend Tuesday afternoon’s meeting in the gym or send a message to Coach Andersen at eandersen@hufsd.edu.