Division's Thomas Bonsignore wins 110-meter hurdles to qualify for state championship meet
Division's Thomas Bonsignore clears a hurdle in the 110 meter hurdles during day two of the Nassau track and field championships and state qualifiers in Syosset on Friday, May 31, 2024. Credit: Peter Frutkoff
Though a large handful of his peers entered Friday already qualified for the boys track and field state championships, Division’s Thomas Bonsignore needed a first-place finish at the Nassau state qualifier meet at Syosset High School to do the same.
After narrowly winning the Division I 110-meter hurdles in a personal-best time of 15 seconds flat, Bonsignore can finally say that he is going to the state championships. The senior has come a long way to get to this point.
“It’s pretty exciting,” Bonsignore said. “The whole time leading up to this, I just kept thinking of how bad I was freshman year and the big difference from now. Just to think of all the hard work I’ve put in, it means a lot.”
In preparation for Friday’s event, Bonsignore overprepared himself to help the race seem easier.
“I’ve been doing a lot of 400-meter hurdles just to be a lot more comfortable with the actual hurdles and not freak out about how tall they are,” Bonsignore said. “I just worked on shorter heights to stay low and [keep] the formwork. I literally just did form over and over, stretched and worked on speed on the side.”
Bonsignore needed every bit of effort to win his race, as he edged Marlon Pierre of Baldwin by eight-hundreths of a second. Bonsignore did not take a definitive lead until he cleared the final hurdle. The tightness of the dash motivated Bonsignore to finish strong and clinch his spot at the state championships, scheduled for June 7-8 at Cicero-North Syracuse High School.
“I started off pretty slow, I felt,” Bonsignore said. “I kept seeing everyone near me, so I’m like, ‘Oh shoot.’ I knew it was my race to win because I was the No. 1 seed going into it. I saw [Pierre] coming close to me; that got me a little worried. I just tried to finish the race rather than focus on the form.”
Oyster Bay senior and Stony Brook commit Christopher Tardugno won the 1,600 in 4 minutes, 20.94 seconds to advance to the state meet for the second straight year.
Tardugno, who competes in Nassau Division II, is proud to be one of the “small-school kids” to come out victorious over Division I runners.
“It feels great because Oyster Bay is a small school,” Tardugno said. “Usually, most other events, Division I kids win. So yeah, it feels great to do my best for my team.”
Tardugno was able to defeat Calhoun’s Logan Schaeffler, one of Long Island’s best distance runners. Schaeffler will be competing in his third straight state championship after beating the state’s 3,000 steeplechase standard time earlier this season.
Despite already owning the super qualifier, the senior did not take it easy on himself and dominated the steeplechase on Friday, posting a 9:52.80.
“Me and my coaches wanted to not let our guard down and take it easy,” Schaeffler said. “I wanted to keep up the hard work all the way to the state meet.”