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Friday, July 5, 2024
Vol. 99, No. 27
SPORTS
BEST OF 10TH ANNUAL
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Keiserman takes aim at Sen. Martins
s at state, national cham
pionships
Over the course of a 6-plus minute rowing race, you wouldn’t think that one single stroke would matter all that much. But good luck convincing the quintet of Port Rowing’s girls U17 4+ boat of that. Because as they learned at the New York State championships on May 11-12, every stroke counts. The way it works at the state meet, held in Saratoga Springs, is that only the Top 3 boats in the grand final (the boats that finished in the Top 10 of the nary heats) make it to the morning prelimiU.S. Rowing Youth Nationals. And there’s often so little difference between the top boats, Port Rowing’s Sophie Pevzner said, that every single stroke could make the difference. “You’re pushing and pushing and you’re so tired, but you know if you take one stroke just a little lighter, the boat next to you is going to pass you and finish ahead,” said Pevzner, about to enter her junior year at Port Washington’s Schreiber High School. “All the training and everything you were hoping for, means you have to go hard on every single stroke.” Pevzner and her teammates (Laura Kim, Charlotte Debler, Katherine swain Alex Cherkas) dug Pupke and coxdeep and accomplished their goal, finishing it to states by a mere 2.8 third and making seconds. It was just one of seven boats, consisting of 31 club athletes, that made it to Sarasota for the June 8-9 nationals. “We had practiced so much states), and we put so much leading up (to selves to make it that when pressure on ourwe finally did, it was a big relief,” said Van Villabos, another Schreiber junior who is on the boys U17 4+ boat that finished third at states as well. “The chemistry and the teamwork that you put in really paid off.” Seven boats making nationals marked the end of yet another successful PHOTO COURTESY OF PORT season for Port Members of the Port Rowing ROWING Rowing, which boasts Boys U17 4+ boat competing more than 100 ath- finished 9th overall, at the U.S. Rowing Youth Nationals letes. the highest for a Port Rowing in Sarasota, Fla. on June 8-9. boat at nationals. The boat Training at North Hempstead State Park, the club has grown and gotten better and bet- were a lot of nerves because ter in recent seasons, and we knew how about uplifting this als showing was impressive. year’s nation- good every boat (at Nationals) is; each every race If there’s a problem, other and doing better. swain Alec Oldis, was a dogfight. Ben Dietrich, Roman Ertel, Competing against the we fix it and move on.” best boats all over Boden Smith, and Alex Also on the girls side “So to get to win the B the country in Florida on Dietrich at Nationals, won final, the C having June 8-9, Port Row- teams see the finals in Sarasota. ing’s boats had several that and see what our team other youth 4+ boat of Coxswain Tea Cotronis, That feat is even more strong performances. is really imOl- pressive when you can do, ivia Burke, Christina exciting.” consider that four memThe best was turned in Lago, and Anna Woodside were Alexandra Burke bers of the boat just finished The girls U17 4+ boat boat, which finished first by that boys U17 third in the D final. showing eighth grade, that squeaked into On the boys side, in how good they can still meaning it was ninth-best in the “B” final, Nationals placed third in the C addition to the get. final, while U17 4+ boat, in the country. The the girls For Pevzner and her teammates, youth 2- boat of Lauren fivesome of coxswain Mio the youth 4+ boat with the NaMarino and swain Shayna coxLanfant, Luca Tizz- Estella Woodside ano, Joseph Macri, Syros Blumenfield, Jared White, tionals experience just made them hungry for finished seventh in the Baris and Villalobos final. more success. C Tilden Vaezi, Cooper beat all comers in the second-best Denninger and Dean final event. Egen, placed fourth in “The competition at Nationals “The best thing about “It’s just a huge sense the C final, while the our boat is we’re Youth is just so of trust we have all like best hard, so to be there and 4- team of with each other in the see how good evboat,” said Macri, a each other,” friends and so supportive of ris Breene, VincentBenjamin Ollendorff, Har- eryone is just shows us how junior at North Shore Pevzner said. “We never DiPalo and Emanuel Lago High School. “There anyone blame captured first place to work to get even better,” hard we have when something goes in the D final. Pevzner said. “It wrong, it’s all definitely motivates us Finally, the boys U16 to come back and do 4x+ boat of cox- even better next year.”
SOUTH HIGH GRADS
Democrat says he sows division, rather than serve District 7 needs BY C A M E RY N O A K ES Port’s Kim Keiserman was recently nominated as the Democratic candidate for New York State Senate District 7 and has begun taking aim at Republican opponent Sen. Jack Martins ahead of the November election. “Jack Martins is not getting the job done for District 7,” Keiserman wrote in a release. “He has openly called his legislative role a ‘part-time job,’ he’s voted against many critical priorities for our district and state, he’s shown more interest in sowing division than solving problems, and he’s embraced and enabled extremism–making him increasingly out of step with the people he was elected to represent.” Martins denied providing comment on Keiserman’s claims. “Senator Martins will not respond to Ms. Kaiserman’s [sic] gratuitous attacks, which are merely an attempt to draw attention to her campaign,” Martin’s Campaign’s Communications Officer Amanda Martins wrote in an email to Blank Slate. Keiserman won the district’s Democratic primary Tuesday in a near 75% landslide victory against
Roslyn resident Brad Schwartz – who was endorsed by the Working Families Party. Attacks began before the election, though, as Keiserman touted her ability to unseat the Republican who flipped the seat red in 2022. Keiserman called the 2022 election different from this year’s because the 2024 presidential election was on the ballot. She said this would help draw in more Democratic voters. She also added that voters would be coming to the polls this time with knowledge of Martins’ actions during his first term when he was called inactive in the district. “Together, we’re going to vote him out because this district needs results-driven leadership,” Keiserman wrote. The seventh district includes much of the North Shore and the Town of Oyster Bay as far east as Woodbury. Keiserman is an education consultant and serves as a commissioner for the North Hempstead Housing Authority Board of Commissioners, chairwoman of the Baxter Estates Planning Board and a board member of the Come to Believe Network. Continued on Page 34
PHOTO COURTESY OF THE GREAT NECK PUBLIC SCHOOLS
Great Neck South High School seniors perform at their graduation commencement held at the Tilles Center Tuesday.
Martins urges Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg’s removal BY C A M E RY N O A K ES District 7 state Sen. Jack Martins is calling for the removal of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg after he dropped the charges against the pro-Palestinian Columbia student protesters in what Martins is calling a part of Bragg’s progressive political agenda. “If ever there was an ideological demagogue shilling a political agenda, [Bragg would] be the poster child,” Martins, a Republican repre-
sentative from Old Westbury, wrote in an op-ed last week. Protests at Columbia University endured for weeks, with hundreds of protesters setting up encampments at the school. The students called for the university to divest its funding of organizations supporting Israel and contributing to the IsraelHamas war. On April 30, more than 300 protesters were arrested on Columbia’s Upper Manhattan campus after the group broke into a campus building.
Bragg announced June 20 that he would be dropping the cases against 31 of the 46 individuals charged. He cited a lack of evidence available to prosecute their cases. In an op-ed published in Blank Slate Media titled “New Yorkers Deserve Better,” Martins denounces Bragg’s dropping of the charges against the students and called for his removal from office – asking others to join him as well. District 7 Democratic candidate Continued on Page 34