Sophomore Eric Heinz Shines for Blue Devils

Huntington sophomore Eric Heinz did it again at the Section XI Frosh/Soph Championships last Friday night at Suffolk West in Brentwood.

Heinz leaped a personal best 5’10 in high jump, which ranks him among the best in the county. The teenager was in heated battle with Eiffel Francois of Islip and Christian Deleon of North Babylon. The three continued to clear height after height as the bar continued to be raised and the competitors became few. Deleon and Francois both had misses at 5’6 and 5’8 while Heinz had cleared them both on his first try.  Deleon missed all attempts at 5’6, leaving just Francois and Heinz remaining in the event.

Heinz missed 5’10 on his first attempt as did Francois. Both would make it on their second attempts. The bar was now raised to 6 feet. Heinz appeared to be over, but his right hand clipped the bar. Francois would miss his first attempt as well, but managed to make it over on his second attempt. Heinz would miss again to give the gold medal to Islip as the Huntington sophomore grabbed the silver medal for second place.

But Heinz wasn’t quite finished for the day. He simply refused to be denied gold. Seeded No. 3 in the 600m race behind top ranked Desmond Escobar of Bellport and No. 2 Nikolas Gasparis of Miller Place, Heinz went after it as soon as the starting gun sounded.

After the first lap, Heinz settled in behind Escobar, Gasparis and William Smith of Smithtown West. “Heinz kept pace and on the last lap he made a move and started passing Smith and Gasparis,” Blue Devil head coach Ronald E. Wilson said. “He then had his eyes on Escobar and coming off the last turn, Heinz found another gear and held off the top seed for the gold finishing the race in 1:28.”

Heinz would later team up with Huntington freshman Benjamin Burke and sophomores Adan Ntambwe and Alexis Gomez in the 4x400m relay earning bronze medals for fourth place in 3:55.

In other action for the Blue Devils:

• Sophomore Colby Curran who also had a spectacular day battling it out with Commack’s Spencer Weiss.  The two would go back and forth with the top mark. Weiss would eventually throw his best of the season 46’0.5 for the gold medal and Curran threw his personal best of 44’11.75 for silver medal. Huntington freshman Joseph Rivers threw a personal best of 39’3.5 for a bronze medal in fifth place.

At Sunday’s Tony Toro Meet, senior Titan Elysee won the 300m dash in 37.53 and senior Dom Mattio placed second in 38.15.  Curran placed fourth in shot put with a toss of 44’1.5 and junior Banny  Soc Concua placed sixth with a personal best of 40’4.