Madison Phillips Wins Overall County Title in Pentathlon, Will Be Joined by Three Other Hurricanes at States

The Westhampton Beach boys and girls track teams will each be sending a pair of athletes to the New York State Track and Field Championships this weekend, Friday and Saturday, at Middletown High School.

Madison Phillips and Lily Strebel will represent the girls, while Trevor Hayes and Max Haynia will represent the boys.

Phillips was the only one of the four to punch her ticket to states outright by becoming overall Suffolk County Champion in the pentathlon, a grueling five events spread across the two days of the state qualifier last Thursday and Friday at Comsewogue High School. Phillips, who earned a silver medal at the New York Relays earlier this season in the heptathlon, which is two more events than the pentathlon, was one of the favorites to win. Having competed in the pentathlon since she started track her freshman year really gives her an edge over most opponents, she said.

“I’m able to prepare myself better knowing what events I do well in and don’t do as well in,” she said. “If there’s one event that’s my downfall, I know I can do better in the next.”

It certainly helps, she said, that her main event is the 100-meter hurdles and typically the first event of the pentathlon. For most athletes, the hurdles are not their strong suit, but knowing she has that edge gives Phillips a confidence boost, she said.

Although on Thursday, in one of the very first events of the entire meet, Phillips said she didn’t do all too well in the hurdles. Still she managed to win it in 16.03 seconds. She then tied for second place in the high jump (1.47 meters), placed second in the shot put (8.87 meters), tied for fourth in the long jump (4.82 meters) and finished eighth in the 800-meter run (2:41.04). She totaled 2,827 points to grab the county title.

“I was really shooting to win,” she said. “I wasn’t too sure if I could. It was tough competition. Everyone there was really good. I tried to give myself a buffer in the hurdles, knowing that it was probably not the strongest event for the others. I didn’t run as well as I usually do, but having that as the first event gives me a lot more confidence in the other events.”

Phillips said she’s competed against some of the competition she’ll see at states at the Loucks Games earlier this season. She thinks she’ll be in the mix for a state title, but she’ll do the best she can and “whatever I come in, I’ll be happy with.”

Strebel ran in arguably the two most competitive races of last week’s state qualifier simply for the fact that she was running against William Floyd sophomore and All-American Zariel Macchia in not just one, but both of her races — the 800-meter run and the 1,500-meter race. Thankfully, both were on separate days.

First up was the 800 on Thursday. Strebel kept a good pace with Macchia and Smithtown West junior Laina Friedmann, but she ultimately finished third in 2:13.29. That was only 0.6 of a second away from the state standard, which would have automatically gotten her to states.

A hard-nosed competitor, Strebel was not happy with her outcome in the 800, but returned to Comsewogue on Friday with a clean slate in the 1,500. She again kept up a strong pace with Macchia, and this time Bayport-Blue Point sophomore Sophia McInnes, but Macchia took both girls on the final 100-meters or so and won that race as well. Strebel placed third overall in 4:34.93, but second in Division I — McInnes is a Division II runner — and finished under the state standard of 4:35 and therefore qualified for states.

“I was pretty nervous going into the races,” Strebel said. “My coach told me to stick as close to [Macchia] as I possibly can, so that’s what I tried to do. She’s definitely been training with speed work this season. She has more speed and kick at the end.”

Hayes was coming off a win in the 1,600-meter race at the Suffolk County Class B Championships, so the expectation was that he would compete in that race at the state qualifier. He opted to race in the 3,000-meter steeplechase instead and finished second overall in 9:45.49, beating out Bay Shore junior Jake Gogarty by over three seconds to win the Division I title. Mount Sinai junior Jess Joe Augustine, a Division II runner, won the race in 9:38.73.

Hayes explained that he had already hit the state standard of 9:36 in the steeplechase by finishing in 9:31 at the St. Anthony’s Invitational earlier this season, so all he had to do was run the race last week and he automatically qualified for states.

“I had more leeway in that event,” he said. “With the mile, I would have had to win it to go.

“I was just more comfortable going into the steeple,” Hayes added. “I was going for the win, a little disappointed that I didn’t, but Jess ran a great race. Conditions were tough on everyone, and he was the best runner on that day. But I still qualified for states, and I’m going.”

Hayes said he’s expecting a pretty competitive race upstate. The No. 1 runner has a top time of 9:24, but the rest of the field is running in the 9:30s.

Going into this spring season, Haynia was probably the program’s biggest lock to reach states. He did so in each of the previous two seasons, and reached nationals in both cross country in the fall and indoor track in the winter. In early April, the senior traveled to California to compete among some of the top runners in the country in the Arcadia Invitational in the seeded 3,200-meter race. The result was both good and bad — he placed 18th in 8:57.77, well below the state super standard of 9:14, essentially qualifying for states then. The bad was that he suffered a leg injury. What started as an IT band issue in his knee led to a patella tendon issue and a hamstring problem to boot. Ever since then, he’s tried to push through it all in limited action the entire spring.

Last week, he started the 3,200-meter race at Comsewogue, but about halfway through the race he had to pull himself out.

“I felt it slightly through first 800 meters and then I started thinking to myself, ‘I can either tough it out and try and win the race or save myself and shoot for it at the state meet,’ so that’s what I did,” he explained. “I’ve kept training through it, and I’ve made progress to where I think it’s going to be fine. I’ll just be running through it at the state meet.”

There were a handful of others who called the state qualifier their final meet of the season. Sophomore Halle Geller finished seventh in her preliminary race of the 100-meter dash in 12.76 seconds to reach the finals, where she finished sixth overall in 12.71 seconds. Sophomore Marcus Haynia finished 11th in the county in the 3,200-meter race in 10:48.34. Oona Murphy, a junior, finished ninth in the 2,000-meter steeplechase in 7:35.59. Jack Hendrickson, a junior, finished 10th in the discus with a throw of 129 feet 2 inches. Hollie McAllister, another junior, tied for 16th in the pole vault after clearing 8 feet 6 inches.