Wantagh cross country's Owen Stachlik wins Nassau 5K title at Bethpage State Park
Owen Stachlik of Wantagh wins the Class III 5K race at the Nassau cross country championships on Saturday Nov. 2, 2024. Credit: Derrick Dingle
Throughout his varsity cross country career, Wantagh senior Owen Stachlik had always been one of the better runners in Nassau County. However, last year, he consistently finished behind junior teammate Ian Frazer and Seaford senior Myles Munro on the biggest stages. With both Frazer and Munro headlining the 2024 Nassau Class III 5,000-meter championship run coming in, Stachlik decided that Saturday afternoon at Bethpage State Park was going to be his moment instead.
In what was a tight race for much of the early and middle portion, Stachlik pulled away from Munro and Frazer in the final stretch. As he sprinted towards the finish line, he placed his fingers inside the shoulder straps of his jersey and pulled it forward to clearly present his school’s name. Stachlik crossed the finish line a county champion with a time of 15 minutes, 48.4 seconds.
“I’ve been racing this for four years: fall, indoor and spring,” Stachlik said. “This has been the goal. I worked so hard for this. So many nights. I put all of my marbles on today, and it paid off.”
Stachlik’s time was the second-fastest on Saturday, as he finished just one-fifth of a second behind the Nassau Class II champion: Manhasset junior Blake Sealy.
Sealy originally played basketball in high school and did not start running competitively until 2023. Now, in just his second year as a cross country runner, Sealy was the fastest kid in Nassau on championship day. He will continue to run this winter, rather than play basketball.
Looking back on where he began his high school sports career, being a devoted runner and county champion does not make sense to him.
“I would’ve thought I would’ve stuck with basketball for the rest of high school, but I’m having so much fun with this so I’m just going to keep riding this,” Sealy said.
The first runner crowned on Saturday was Farmingdale senior George Thomatos, who ran a 15:55.7 and won the Nassau Class I championship by 25.6 seconds. It was a full circle moment for Thomatos, as he tore his hip flexor muscle as a sophomore on the same course in the same race.
Though he was happy to have finally conquered Bethpage, he remained coy about his accomplishment.
“It feels great, but I don’t like to celebrate too much,” Thomatos said. “I would rather just keep the ball rolling, because when I over-celebrate, I tend to start performing badly. Now I’m looking ahead to next week, then states, then Feds, then hopefully [nationals].”
Port Washington repeated as Nassau Class I champion with 60 points on the backs of senior Lukas Derasmo (second place), senior William Ahmuty (ninth) and sophomore Gael Ogmen (10th).
Behind Sealy’s lead, Manhasset placed five of the first seven runners and got all seven of its runners to finish within the top 12. The crew easily won their 13th team county title in a row by scoring 22 points to become 2024 Nassau Class II champions.
Combined with Stachlik’s performance, Frazer finished third in the Class III race with a 16:16.1 and junior Brady Wolken placed eighth to help Wantagh capture their respective team championship with a score of 52, edging out Valley Stream North by just a point.
