Alexis Panisse of Cardozo won all three girls track & field Wingate Awards. (Denis Gostev)
Kaitlyn Astel’s basketball accolades are well documented. The McKee/Staten Island star is the school’s all-time leading scorer, she led the Seagulls to four consecutive PSAL Staten Island titles and their first ever trip to Madison Square Garden for the PSAL Class AA title game She is headed to Manhattan College in the fall.
She can also drive, chip and putt with the best of them.
“It’s something not a lot of people know about me,” Astel said of her golf skills.
The PSAL’s girls basketball Wingate Award winner, given to the top senior athlete in each sport at the Brooklyn Marriot Monday night, is also one of the city’s top golfers. Her father even joked that she beats him shooting in the low 90s. Astel placed fifth in the PSAL individual championship last fall and won 12 matches out of the No. 2 spot during the season.
“In our hallway by the locker room they have a big golf picture of me, not even a basketball,” said Astel, who also ran outdoor track this spring. “It is weird. It’s like, ‘Oh golf.’”
It’s still on the hardwood where she left her mark on the Staten Island school, though the golf season was the most demanding because of long matches and practices that was the toughest to juggle Staten Island Tech’s challenging course load. She did a fine job, with a brilliant 105 average.
An All-City third team basketball selection by The Post, she had 29 points in the quarterfinals against John F. Kennedy, 14 in the semifinal upset of top-seeded South Shore and 13 more in the championship game against Murry Bergtraum.
“I feel really honored because there are so many basketball players in New York City,” Astel said. “It just goes to show that all of the hard work that I put in from a young age paid off for me.”
Cardozo’s Panisse, Stuyvesant’s Surkont dominate track awards: Judges star Alexis Panisse added some more hardware to her growing list of accomplishments this season. The Tennessee-bound distance runner swept the cross country, indoor and outdoor track& field Wingate Awards.
“I worked so hard,” Panisse said. “Every day I put my heart out.”
She thanked Judges assistant coach Ray James for his dedication to her and her parents for their support as part of her speech. Panisse won her second straight PSAL cross country title in the league’s fastest time in 26 years and qualified for the Foot Locker Nationals. During indoor season, she qualified to run the prestigious Millrose Mile and led Cardozo to its fourth straight city title. At the outdoor championships, Panisse won the 3,000, 800 and was the anchor leg to the winning 4 x 800 relay as Cardozo took home a fifth consecutive crown. It was a season that puts her name among the Judges many great runners over the years.
“A lot of these girls I look up too,” Panisse said. “They helped Cardozo win a lot of titles.”
While she took home three awards, Stuyvesant’s Konrad Surkont earned two from cross country and outdoor track & field. Columbus’ Strymar Livington was the indoor winner. Surkont is headed to Harvard in the fall, where he will be in the pre-med program. He won consecutive PSAL cross country titles and won the 1,600 meters and 3,200 city titles in outdoors in the second and fourth fastest times in PSAL history, respectively.
“Winning one is spectacular,” Surkont said. “Winning two is unimaginable. It’s something that shows hard work and perseverance pay off.”
Bruno heads to UMass, leaving legacy of success at MSIT: Jackie Bruno could feel it all coming to an end Monday night. The McKee/Staten Island Tech soccer star, widely considered as the city’s best forward, added another piece to her legacy with the Wingate Award. As a freshman, she helped lead the Seagulls to a PSAL Class A city title and went to the semifinals two more times while winning three division titles. Bruno, who is headed to UMass on scholarship in the fall, scored 94 goals in her memorable career.
“It’s my last high school award,” Bruno said. “It’s kind of upsetting and also exciting. I’m really looking forward to working hard at UMass. The speeches they gave showed me how hard I am going to have to work.”
Check NYPost.con throughout the week for more stories highlighting the Wingate Award winners.