Lily Strebel Finishes Standout Career All-State in the 1,500

Regardless of what would have happened this past weekend at the New York State Outdoor Track and Field Championships at Middletown High School, Lily Strebel would have gone down as arguably the best long distance runner in the history of the Westhampton Beach girls cross country and track and field program.

But the always competitive senior wanted to go out on top, or as close to it as she could get.

Having qualified for both the 1,500- and 3,000-meter races by hitting super standards from earlier this season, Strebel first ran the 3K on Friday, in which she finished seventh in Class B, 20th overall, in 10:10.84. It was on Saturday, in the 1,500, in which Strebel landed on the podium, finishing fourth in Class B, 19th overall, in a season’s best 4:40.05.

Her All-State finish in the 1,500 adds to what is a lengthy list of accolades between cross country in the fall — a sport she didn’t really start to focus on until just last season — indoor track in the winter and spring track outdoors. John Broich, who has been the head coach of the girls track program at Westhampton Beach since its inception over 30 years ago, said Strebel is definitively the best distance runner the program has ever had. With respect to runners like Brittney Carter and Mary Sullivan, the times these days are simply faster, Broich said, thanks to an uber-competitive group of girls in Suffolk County, many of whom are not only the best on Long Island or in New York State, but in the country.

“Lily is the best distance runner ever, hands down,” he said. “She holds school records indoors in the 1,000, 1,500 and 3,000, and outdoors in the 800, 1,500 and 3,000, and has all of the cross country records. The past 10 years, times have really been coming down. It’s gotten very, very competitive, and the one thing with Lily is that she only missed one meet that I can remember and that was for a college visit. She always made sure to look at the schedule before each season, made sure there were no conflicts. She was a real team player.”

After getting to the track at around 2 p.m. Friday, Strebel didn’t run her 3,000 until about 8 p.m. She said she went into the race thinking it was her only one of the meet, so she could give it proper focus. The plan that she and Broich put together was to be reserved the first 1,500 meters — something Strebel said she tried to execute as best as possible, but the field simply wouldn’t let it. If she were to stay in the race by running in the middle of the pack, she needed to speed things up a bit, and the second half of the race became difficult she said.

“My legs just weren’t there,” she said. “It was a great experience with great weather. I came off the track a little disappointed, and I was crying. But coach said it was okay, that this race doesn’t define you. I didn’t accomplish what I wanted to, but I just had to forget about it and put it in the past.”

Following the race, Strebel, who is set to run next year at the University of Richmond, went to dinner with friends, including Zariel Machia, the William Floyd senior standout who is heading to BYU and who won that same 3K race. Doing that helped put that race behind her, Strebel said.

Strebel was back on the track Saturday morning with a renewed sense of confidence and with her final high school race of her career in front of her. She admitted she got emotional beforehand just because it was such a bittersweet moment, but she put everything she had into the race. She made a move 600 meters in that put her in a good position to have her finish where she did, and she was happy with the outcome.

“I’m grateful for that,” Strebel said. “I came off the track happy with my performance. It had been a bit of a rough season with me not reaching my top goals, but I was satisfied with what I was able to accomplish.”

Strebel admitted that her last two races coming into states — the county championships and state qualifier — were not her best races by any means. She joked that she would have liked to have blamed it on the fact that she knew she already qualified for states by hitting super standards, but that simply wouldn’t be the truth. She just didn’t have it those races, she said. But when it came down to needing a strong finish in her final race, she was able to dig deep and pull it out.

Broich said Strebel’s competitiveness and perseverance is what made her so great.

“Her will to want to do really well is above and beyond,” he said. “I never really needed to prod too much other than to share some ideas. She has all of the tools to work through the rough patches.”

Strebel isn’t quite done, officially. She is going to run in the 5K at the New Balance Outdoor Nationals at Franklin Field in Philadelphia this Thursday night. It was in that same race last year that she had her best race of the entire spring, finishing in 17:10. The 5K isn’t run at the high school level, but is in college and it is a distance that Strebel sees herself running more in the future.

Strebel said she’s going to miss her time in Westhampton Beach.

“It’s still emotional, I guess, but from freshman year I started off as a mid-distance runner getting in shape for soccer so I couldn’t even imagine, being that Westhampton had this amazing program to grow in,” she said. “Coach Broich gave every opportunity to compete at every level. He’s such a great and positive coach and I’m going to miss him and Coach Ot [Meg Yakaboski], who was really like having another mom in a sense.

“It’s going to be sad leaving them and the amazing teammates I’ve had throughout the years like Val Finke,” Strebel continued. “She was a leader I looked up to my freshman year. We came close to breaking 10 minutes in the 4x8, we won a county championship indoors my sophomore year, so, even though I’m leaving, I’m leaving with a lot of great athletes to push the program forward and have a new step in the journey.”