After his historic spring track season that saw him set a new Smithtown High School West school record in the 3200 meter run, Doug Antaky made his highly anticipated season debut at the Bob Pratt invitational and he put the entire state on notice.
The senior distance runner stepped to the line against some of the best runners in Suffolk County in the varsity race at Sunken Meadow State Park, arguably the hardest cross country course in New York State.
Antaky ran hard from the starting gun and covered the grueling 5000 meter course with a time of 16:13, setting a new Smithtown Cross Country record and posting a new meet record time as well.
“The race was a really good start for me this season.” Said Antaky following his season debut. “My race plan was just to try and win the race and do it as easily as possible. I may have worked a little harder than I wanted, but it was definitely a great race (for me).”
Despite his main goal only being winning the meet – which has become a tradition amongst Smithtown Runners over the last 10 years – Antaky had the idea that he would break the 15 year old school record this season.
“It feels great to have gotten the record,” Said Antaky. “I want to have every school record from the 1600 meter run (just 9 meters short of 1 Mile) and up. If everything goes to plan, I do think that this season that I will go down in Smithtown history as one of the best in school history”
Antaky has become one of Suffolk County’s best distance runners and with this performance, he becomes the man to beat in the county as he now has the fastest time at the state park since the State Meet was held at Sunken Meadow in November of 2019.
Despite that, Antaky has continued to look at the bigger picture and he is not content with the school record and County number one time.
“It’s still early in the season,” The Senior distance runner said. “I still have a lot of time left in my season and a lot more to give. It is a great stepping stone, but I still want to solidify (my record) even more by going sub 16 minutes and even try for the 15:45 goal.”
Along with the individual record performance by Antaky, his teammates on the Smithtown Cross Country team continued to show signs of improvement as they took second place in the varsity race during the Bob Pratt Invitational.
The Bulls look to return to their past glory as they are currently going through a small championship drought. The Bulls won the county championship in Cross Country from 2016-2019 under the guidance of legendary head coach Peter Schieck.
“The team placed second overall and it's a massive jump for us from last season.” Said Antaky, “I am more worried about the team at this time more than anything. I am proud of them, but they know we have work to do if we want to go to states and beyond. I am excited to see how far this team will go. Hopefully we can take this team all the way up to the top and go down as one of the best Smithtown teams ever.”
Doug Antaky and the Smithtown Bulls Cross Country team will be back on the invitational circuit on September 30th as they travel to New Jersey for the New Balance Shore Coaches Invitational at the treacherous Holmdel Park 5k course located in Monmouth County.
