After Winning Regionals, Max Haynia Heads to Nike Cross Nationals This Weekend

You know you’ve hit it big when Nike is picking up the tab for an all-expenses-paid trip.

Westhampton Beach senior Max Haynia won the Nike New York Regionals championship 5K race at Bowdoin Park in Wappingers Falls, in an impressive 15:57.90, to punch his ticket to the Nike Cross Nationals at Glendoveer Golf Course in Portland, Oregon, this Saturday, December 3.

Haynia was the only runner to finish the race in under 16 minutes. Monroe-Woodbury senior Collin Gilstrap, who just a week prior won New York’s Federation Championships, which Haynia opted to skip, finished second, in 16:03.50.

Haynia had his bags packed and was flown out to Oregon by Nike on Wednesday. He’ll spend time at Nike World Headquarters in Beaverton, Oregon, just 10 minutes down the road from Portland, before running against the best the country has to offer on Saturday.

Coming off his New York State Class B Championship race win on November 12, Haynia did his research for last weekend’s race to the point where he felt confident he could win the race, even though he was running against the top runners in the region, not just against fellow “B” runners, as he did at the state meet.

To that point, the best runner in the state two weeks prior at states, Baldwinsville senior Solomon Holden-Betts, placed fourth in the regional race this past Saturday, in 16:07.30, well behind Haynia, who said he planned and did his research so he could run a smart race, which he did.

“I stayed patient throughout the first two miles,” he explained. “At the two-mile mark, the course has this one large uphill and then a downhill, so I just surged for the lead and took over from there for the final mile.

“I thought it was going to be way faster,” Haynia admitted. “I thought it was going to go out a bit faster and then stay out a bit faster than it did. And I was expecting more people to stay in the mix, to have a pack until the two-mile mark. But it was strung out in groups of basically two people running side by side for most of it.”

When Haynia takes off on the opening gun this Saturday, he will join a very select group of individual runners who have competed at nationals: Kevin Krause (Longwood, 1980), Brian Dalpiaz (Sayville, 2001), Brendan Sullivan (Port Jefferson, 2001), Kevin Tshirhart (Northport, 2002 and 2004), Ryan Sheridan (Walt Whitman, 2004), Quinn Raseman (Ward Melville, 2009) and Kevin Hogan, the last Westhampton Beach runner to compete nationally. Hogan actually has the highest placement of any Suffolk County runner ever at nationals, having placed 10th in 1989 — and a year later, when he transferred to Longwood, Hogan reached nationals again and placed 19th, according to suffolkxctf.com.

Westhampton Beach head coach John Broich said it would be great if Haynia could finish ninth and set a new Suffolk County record. While that might be a tall mountain to climb, he said he wouldn’t doubt Haynia one bit.

“He hasn’t run his fastest time yet,” he said. “He’s been doing races where he’s been holding back the first half, pushing the second half. I think he’s going to be a lot more aggressive this Saturday, but we’ll see.” He added, “I don’t think he’ll be waiting back — he’s been waiting for this moment.”

Haynia said placing in the top 10 would be extremely difficult to do, and he isn’t sure if he can place that high. But this race is different, he said, due to so many unknowns, so he can only do so much research. Times coming in from one region can be different when compared to another region, he said.

Haynia would like to finish his cross country career as an All-American, which he thinks he can do by placing in the top 21 on Saturday.

One thing is for sure: He won’t be holding back.

“I’d be pretty lucky if I get top 10. There are some pretty good athletes in that group. Plus, the field has expanded since Nike took over the meet in 2002 and expanded it to individual runners, so it’s a lot different from when the other runners competed in the past,” he said.

“I let everything go at the end of Regionals, and I know I have a lot more to give at the national meet than I did at the regional meet.”