Alumni Watch - ACHIEVEMENT AND RECOGNITION

Riverhead Central School District is proud of its alumni. Here's a few that have been singled out so far this year.

(To read more about the recipients and their award, click on their name or the underlined title. I'm sorry if I've missed someone. If you are aware of others who won recognition or awards, please contact me at sandy.kolbo@riverhead.net.)

2009-10 School Year

Parker Ince, class of 2006, is a competitive runner.

(May 2009) At RHS Parker Ince participated in Cross Country and track. While attending SUNY-New Paltz, he was on the Cross Country team.

Recently, Parker earned a First Place in his age group in a Duathlon at Eisenhower Park. Last week he entered the Long Island Marathon, his first marathon. Parker finished 27th out of 512, with a time of 3:10:05.

Bailey Ince, RHS class of 2007 (Update 4/23/10)

Bailey Ince, RHS 2007 and a senior at
Adelphi University, in recognition of
National Student Athlete Day,
was awarded the
Presidential Award for Excellence in
Academics and Athletics,
from TD Bank and Adelphi University. 

Bailey Ince, RHS class of 2007, attends Adelphi University where he is a member of the Cross Country and Track teams. A middle distance runner,he runs the 4x400m relay, and qualified this year for winter track Nationals in the 800m.

In April he was honored with a National Student Athlete award.

RHS Alumni Ashley Lewis Named Performer of the Week
from University at Albany

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.- In the final week of regular season competition before the America East Outdoor Track & Field Championships, University at Albany’s Joe Greene (Rochester, N.Y./Edison Tech), Laura Cummings (Bay Shore, N.Y./Bay Shore), Wilfredo de Jesus Elias (Arroyo, P.R./Natividad Rodriguez Gonzalez) and Ashley Lewis (Riverhead, N.Y./Riverhead) each qualified for post-season competition, resulting in a Great Dane-sweep of the Performer of the Week awards.

Lewis, the female Field Performer of the Week, broke a school record, recorded an ECAC qualifying mark and won two events while placing second in another at the Capital District Classic held at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. The junior broke the school record and qualified for the ECAC meet in the javelin with a first-place throw of 136-feet, 6-inches. She also set a personal record by almost 18 feet to become the first Great Dane on the women’s team to ever reach the qualifying standard for the ECAC meet in the event. In addition, she placed second in the discus throw with a toss that was marked at 128-0 and won the long jump with a leap of 16-11.25.

Riverhead High School:

Lettered in track and field all four years and in tennis for three years at Riverhead High School ... Team captain for three years ... Named all-state, all-county and all-league three times ... Earned team MVP accolades twice ... Member of the National Honor Society and Foreign Language Honor Society.

Personal:

Majoring in biology (pre-medicine) ... Born Dec. 28, 1987 ... Daughter of James and Mary Ann Harris

Four years later, Dougherty's approaching the finish line
Wading River runner nears end of her Villanova career
BY BOB LIEPA | SPORTS EDITOR

Courtesy Photo: Villanova senior Ellen Dougherty, far left, rounded a turn while running the 800 meters in the Big East Championships. She finished fifth in 2:10.14.

It wasn't long after her arrival at Villanova University four years ago when Ellen Dougherty checked out her workout schedule and was stunned to see that it called for her to run five miles a day. Five miles! "I thought this was insane," said the Wading River woman, who had never run more than 30 miles a week during her career as a standout cross-country and track and field runner for Riverhead High School. Little did she know it at the time, but 60-mile weeks were in her future.

Running cross-country, indoor track and outdoor track for an NCAA Division I team involved a lot more than Dougherty could have imagined back then, and academics were as much of a challenge as athletics.

"It wasn't an easy course load," the senior said. "Classes were hard. I definitely underestimated what it would take to balance Division I athletics and schoolwork."

With the finish line to her college career fast approaching (graduation day will be May 17), Dougherty's days of running for Villanova's track and field team aren't quite over. She will compete in the 800 meters in a regional meet at the end of the month in Greensborough, N.C., with the hope of qualifying for the NCAA Championships.

Villanova hosted the Big East Championships this past weekend for the second straight year. Although Dougherty had to watch last year's conference meet as a spectator because of a foot injury, she was an active participant this time around.

Dougherty anchored a 4x800-meter relay team that included senior Emily McMillan, sophomore Sheila Reid and junior Nicole Schappert. They finished third in 8 minutes 52.01 seconds, behind Georgetown (8:42.40) and Connecticut (8:48.93) in the pouring rain. In addition, Dougherty came in fifth in the 800 in 2:10.14. It was her best outdoor finish individually.

"This has probably been my best season at Villanova," Dougherty said. "I've been running well in both the 800 and the 1,500. The times had been dropping, and my workouts have been very good. I've been healthy and had no injuries."

Remaining injury-free, Dougherty has found, isn't something to be taken for granted. "I've been lucky," she said. "This is a Division I program, and it's very trying. A lot of kids I run against ... they are riddled with injuries."

With the exception of last spring, Dougherty has competed in all the Big East Championships for cross-country, indoor track and outdoor track over the past four years. She was on a Big East champion 4x800 indoor team in 2007 as well as a conference champion 4x800 outdoor team in 2006.

Dougherty's personal-best times are listed as 2:01.86 in the 800, 2:50.99 in the 1,000, 4:26.03 in the 1,500 and 4:51.01 in the mile.

Recalling her high school days, Dougherty had a simpler vision of the track and field world. "I thought you run fast and you go to the nationals and you get sponsored by Nike, and that's it," she said. "It's kind of a humbling experience. I come here and these people run my [high] school records multiple times in a day for a training session."

A political science major with a 3.0 average, Dougherty is still adjusting to the idea that she will soon graduate. She said she has thought about graduate school and law school, but has no definite plans for her future, aside from knowing that she will continue to be a runner.

"It still hasn't really hit me yet that it's going to be over soon," she said. "It was such an experience running for this school. It has such a rich history of athletics, and it's opened a lot of doors for me. It was so worth the ride. I enjoyed it. It's kind of sad that it is ending. That's how it is, I guess."

bliepa@timesreview.com

Danielle Gray, Lawyer and Obama Transitional Team Member

Congratulations to Danielle Gray.

Check out the News Review Article and Interview with Danielle Gray published by the News Review in their November 26th issue.

News Review Article - Ms. Gray is an alumna of Duke University and Harvard Law School. She was an economics and public policy double-major at Duke and was voted "most likely to be a Supreme Court justice" by her Harvard class of 2003. She was a law clerk to Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer before advising the future president-elect.

Two years ago, Ms. Gray took a leave of absence from the New York City law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher and Flom, one of the largest in the world, to campaign with Mr. Obama. She said she'd first heard of then-Senator Obama during an alumni celebration on the Harvard campus. >More

Interview with Danielle Gray

Q: Were you happy with your high school education overall?

A: I was one of those students who really loved high school. From kindergarten to high school, I had great teachers who challenged me and encouraged me to dream big. I think the first time I really thought about doing something in government and politics was in Jerry Weismann's social studies class, which I loved. I had coaches who really helped me develop skills on relating to different people and working in teams that have served me all of my life. And I had guidance counselors who helped make sure that the process of applying to college and applying for financial aid wasn't too intimidating or scary, which was really important for me.

Q: When did you decide on Duke?

A: Early spring of my senior year. I visited the campus and immediately fell in love with the school. And the school offered me a generous scholarship that factored into my decision. Plus, I was already a huge Duke basketball fan. I broke my ankle in sixth grade, and as I sat in a hospital bed awaiting surgery, I watched UNLV beat Duke pretty badly in the 1990 NCAA finals. They were the underdog back then, and I really liked some of their players. I've been a huge fan ever since. >More

12/2/08

Check in on the class of 1982