John Loeffel Is This Year's Clear Cut Winner of the Firecracker 8K

Adamant, determined, hell-bent, intent, resolute, unwavering. Plug in any adjective to describe John Loeffel’s will to win the 32nd annual Firecracker 8K on Sunday morning and they would all probably be understated.

An error by last year’s pace car when it made a wrong turn down the final stretch of the 4.97-mile race in Southampton Village pulled the leader of the race, Oz Pearlman, off course. James Loeffel, who had been leading the first half of the race along with his brother, John Loeffel, wound up taking the lead down that final stretch and initially won. But after a post-race discussion, it was agreed that Pearlman would be declared the winner due to the pace car’s error, leading to his third straight victory, having won in 2019, 2021 and then 2022 — the race did not happen in 2020 due to the pandemic.

This year John Loeffel, 22, who splits time between Queens and Southampton, made it a point to win without any discussion and without any doubt and he did just that, crossing the finish line in 25:13.51, a mile pace of 5:04 and well over a minute faster than the next fastest runner, Sergey Avramenko, 38, of Belarus and Hampton Bays, who crossed in 26:54.86. Jeffrey Ares, 39, of New York City and a 2017 champion of the Firecracker, placed third in 27:03.81, followed by Pearlman, 40, of Brooklyn and Southampton, who crossed in 27:09.82. Southampton’s own Billy Malone, who just finished his freshman year running at Loyola University in Maryland, rounded out the top five, finishing in 28:03.08.

Loeffel’s performance was one of the best in recent memory. The last person to finish in under 26:00 was Kevin Harvey in 2015, who finished in 25:33. As impressive as Loeffel’s race was, it still did not top Larry Barthlow’s course record of 24:24 set during the second annual race in 1992.

As Loeffel came down the final stretch of the race on Sunday, drenched from a combination of sweat and a couple of showers that came down during the race, he held up his finger signaling number one.

“Last year, there was a little ‘mishap’ on the course. It’s hard to win when you have to run a full 5 miles, so that’s probably what happened today with him, clearly,” he said, referring to Pearlman. “I did that all by myself.”

The Loeffel brothers just graduated from Seton Hall University, where they ran cross country for four years. John Loeffel said he’s kept up with his training and plans to do so going forward, with aspirations of possibly running in the Olympics at some point in the future.

“I’ve been doing about 100 miles a week. A lot of workouts, everything by myself,” he said. “About 10 days ago, I did 22 by 400 with a minute rest, pretty much sub-60 for all of them. I’ve been doing a lot of easy mileage, like 17 miles a day, or close to that. A lot of double thresholds. I’m just in shape. I’m in the best shape of my life right now.

“I wish I could go back and race again,” he added. “I was looking to go for my master’s. I was looking down at some ACC and SEC schools. I took some visits. I was really interested in the University of Miami, but it’s real expensive, and I didn’t get the money that I wanted.

“I’m going to try and take a crack at the half marathon. That’s kind of what I’ve been building up to,” Loeffel continued. “I’m trying to eventually get the standard for the Olympic Trials, just build up to the half marathon and then possibly the marathon sometime in the future. Twenty six miles is a long way from 5, so I still have a lot of work to do, but this is a good start.”

Katie Fitzpatrick, 30, who was born on the South Fork but now calls San Francisco home, was this year’s female champion, crossing the finish line in 31:39.17. Sunday was the first time Fitzpatrick ran the Firecracker, stating she typically runs in East Hampton, but with a new family reunion set for the Fourth of July every summer now, she plans on returning.

“It was great. I was just saying to my cousin, he and I ran together, every time you ran around a corner it was wide open, so it felt really good to see the whole course,” she said. “I’ll be back. It was a lot of fun. We have a family reunion on the Fourth of July, and we’re including this event every year.”

Tara Farrell, 44, of East Quogue and Heather Wright, 49, of Westhampton Beach, basically crossed the finish line together in 34:03.69 and 34:03.83, respectively, as the two friends were the second and third females to finish the 8K.

Clare Farrell, 12, won the 3-mile race in 22:08.86. Clare is the daughter of Tara Farrell who has won numerous road races on the East End and on Long Island over the past several years. Clare appears well on her way in following in the footsteps of her mother, she is set to run her first varsity cross country season as an eighth-grader for Westhampton Beach this fall with her mother stating, “I didn’t even start [running] that young.”

Complete results can be found at elitefeats.com.

Just under 250 people finished the 8K while just over 80 crossed the finish line of the 3-mile race. Race directors James Grossi and Kevin Luss both agreed that considering the weather, with intermittent downpours prior to the race, it was a pretty good turnout. Grossi said there were over 80 “no shows,” and that if the weather would have held up, the race would have had over 400 people, which was just about what last year’s race saw, its first time back to the Independence Day time frame after the pandemic.

The Firecracker 8K is the primary fundraiser for the Southampton Rotary Scholarship and Endowment Fund, which provides local students with scholarships and supports other important community groups across Southampton Town, including local fire and ambulance squads, Little League and other youth groups, food banks and other nonprofits like the Ellen Hermanson Foundation for Breast Cancer and the Southampton Animal Shelter Foundation.

Weill Cornell Medicine, for the second year in a row, was the lead sponsor for the race. Luss also thanked The Express News Group, Southampton Village, Southampton Village Police and first responders and Southampton Boy Scouts. He also mentioned something that speaks to the longevity and the importance the race has and has had over the years: He met a couple, Michael Going and Amy Regis, who met 25 years ago at the seventh annual Firecracker and returned on Sunday with their daughter, Maeve Going, who is 15.