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Max Haynia with his Nike Cross Nationals gear.
Westhampton Beach senior Max Haynia was a little under the weather when he won the Nike New York Regionals on November 26, but his illness only got worse in the following days, which affected his run at Nike Cross Nationals at Glendoveer Golf Course in Portland, Oregon, on Saturday.
Haynia finished the boys national championship 5K in 16:39.8, which placed him 146th out of 198 finishers, a bit slower than his time a week prior at Regionals, where he finished in 15:57.90. But the bronchitis he had been dealing with in the week prior had gotten so bad that he needed to go on antibiotics and couldn’t practice for a few days. By the time he touched down in Oregon on November 30, Haynia said he was feeling a little bit better but he was never at full strength on race day.
“I came in knowing already I was sick. I was sick throughout the regional meet, and it played a factor,” he said. “Of course, I wasn’t looking for a top 21 spot anymore, I was just looking to finish the race really. Had I been healthy and ran the race properly, I may have been able to get All-American, but it didn’t happen. I’m not beating myself over it. It’s hard enough to be one of the few from the area to get to Nationals, which is an accomplishment in and of itself. I won states, I won regionals. I feel like I can do similar things this winter indoors at the state meet and national meets.”
Westhampton Beach head coach John Broich said had Haynia been healthy, he really felt as if he could have accomplished his goal, which was to place in the top 21 to become All-American. Monroe-Woodbury senior Collin Gilstrap, who Haynia had beat at Regionals, finished 19th in 15:21 and was the only New York runner to earn All-American honors.
“It just wasn’t in the cards for him,” Broich said.
Haynia, who won a New York State Class B title this season also, said the course itself was rather easy. Since it was on a golf course, it only had rolling hills, nothing too hard to have to climb. What made it difficult, he said, was that there was a narrow space at the starting line that only fit 90 or so runners in one line. With nearly 200 runners in the race, it created front and back rows, which didn’t allow for much room to move up at the start of the race, and everyone was kind of packed in throughout the race because of that. Haynia said the only time he’s had to deal with something similar was at states his freshman year, when there was so much snow it created a similar situation.
Haynia enjoyed his time in Oregon, though, which included visiting Nike World Headquarters, which is just outside Portland. He got to run on the Michael Johnson Track there, that is a typical track but set in the woods. He also got a bunch of gear from Nike, including his jersey, which said “New York” across the front of it.
“It was pretty surreal,” he said of the experience. “There was a lot of down time, but I met a lot of people, many of whom were big-time runners who we had heard about from throughout the season.”
Haynia will head into this winter season as the favorite to win county and possibly state titles in whatever distance he decides to compete in, which he said is most likely going to be the 3,200-meter race. He took off the first few days this week to rest up from his illness and long cross country season, but he’ll get back to practice later in the week and will eventually compete in an indoor crossover before the new year before ramping things up in January.
“I may dabble in the mile. We may try to go to nationals in the [distance medley relay]. It’s all dependent on where I stand relative to the rest of the county this season,” Haynia explained of his indoor prospects this winter. “I am taking off the next few days just to make sure everything is going right, make sure I’m healthy with the bronchitis and all. I’ll come back as soon as I’m ready, get back to training and try to get better.”
