The school’s 88th year was truly an historic one for our athletic teams. To put it into perspective, in 87 years the Bears had won three Long Island Championships and zero State Championships, but by the end of the winter season the total number of Long Island titles had doubled and the first state crown had been brought back to campus. 2009-2010 saw banners added to the walls of Swanson Gymnasium for 3 Long Island Championships, 4 County Championships, 2 League Championships, and the school’s first State Championship. Here is a recap of one of the teams that victoriously wore the blue and white.

“Speak the Truth and Run” adorned the backs of the boys’ cross country team this fall and it was a fitting motto for a team that simply worked hard each day. Led by All-Division runner James Jenden and All-League runners Carlo Masakayan and Josh Kim, the boys ran well in League VIII and Class D finishing 2nd in each as Jenden and Masakayan earned Top 10 finishes in the County Championship on the grueling 3.1-mile course at Sunken Meadow State Park. The following week, at the New York State Meet in Plattsburgh, NY, four boys raced to their best times of the season: Jenden (17:57), Masakayan (18:59), Kim (19:16), and Jeffery Zheng (19:38).

Not to be outdone, the girls’ cross country team brought home hardware from the County Championships. All-League recipients Kathy Kim and Sarah Higgins set the tone for the rest of the team that included Ayana Aaron, Aileen Catapano, Alexandra Damianos, Sarah Han, and Elizabeth Shin. These magnificent seven brought home the school’s first ever girls’ cross country County Championship with Aaron, Damianos, and Kim garnering top ten honors. The girls then competed at the New York State Championships as a team for only the third time in 27 years and finished their successful season with a crescendo. Higgins was the first finisher for the Brook in a time of 23:05, followed by Aaron (23:10), Kim (23:17), Damianos (24:00), Catapano (25.02), Shin (25:14) and Han (25:45).

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