Strebel, McCrary Earn All-County Honors for Westhampton Beach Track

Given her competitiveness, Lily Strebel was gunning for a pair of county titles in the 1,500- and 3,000-meter races at the Section XI 3A Championships at Kings Park High School on Friday. And although she wasn’t able to achieve that she did earn All-County honors in both races.

The Westhampton Beach senior placed second in the 3,000-meter race in 10:22.90, finishing behind Harborfields sophomore Sayla Fives, who crossed the finish line in 10:18.44. Strebel and Fives have created a good competitive relationship over the past year or so from having competing against one another across all three seasons, cross country in the fall, indoor track in the winter and outdoor track in the spring. They’ve traded wins it seems in just about every race they’ve competed together in.

Fives got the best of Strebel in the 1,500-meter race as well, finishing that race in 4:51.62. Sayville freshman Aislyn Beach finished second in 4:53.34, followed by Strebel, who crossed in 4:54.64.

Although there is still the state qualifier this Thursday and Friday at Comsewogue High School, all Strebel needs to do there in order to make it to the New York State Championships is step on the track, since she hit the state super standard qualifying times already earlier this season. Strebel hit the super standard in the 1,500 at the St. Anthony’s Invitational and in the 3,000 at the Joe Brandi Relays.

Strebel was the only Westhampton Beach girl to earn All-County honors last week, although she’ll be joined by a good number of her teammates at the state qualifier this season. Westhampton Beach girls track head coach John Broich found out at Monday night’s seeding meeting that Jasmine Garcia (800-meter race), MiKaling Pantophlet (long jump), Mia Hill (high jump) and Lucy Mansfield (discus) would all be moving on.

Garcia had finished 12th in the county in the 800 in 2:38.86. Pantophlet reached the finals of the long jump, where she injured her hamstring but managed to finish seventh in the county with a leap of 15 feet 10 inches. Broich said if her hamstring allows it, Pantophlet should compete at the state qualifier.

Hill finished fifth in the high jump after reaching 4 feet 8 inches. And Mansfield finished 10th in the discus with a throw of 84 feet 9 inches.

The Hurricane girls had been in the mix for a county title in recent years, but Broich said this was one of his lightest turnouts at a county meet since his early years coaching the team over three decades ago. He said he couldn’t pinpoint an exact reason why that may have been the case, but said it could be due to multiple factors.

One, he said, was that there didn’t seem to be an importance put on invitationals this year. Broich said invitationals are where the team typically gets to bond, being that they’re usually long bus rides away to all-day events where the competition is much tougher than the usual dual meet. Some things, he said, were out of the athletes’ hands, such as illnesses, poor weather, commitments to other things and college visits. With a robust middle school group, Broich is hoping numbers start to improve once again and the team can get back to the usual high competitiveness that it grew accustomed to.

Ezekiel McCrary was the only Westhampton Beach boy to earn All-County honors last week and did so in the pentathlon. He accrued 2,366 points over the five events competed. McCrary finished fifth in the high jump (1.52 meters), fifth in the shot put (8.52 meters), second in the long jump (5.72 meters), fourth in the 110-meter hurdles (18.49 seconds) and third in the 1,500-meter race (4:59.95).

Senior Marcus Haynia finished sixth in the 1,600-meter race in 4:44.48. Junior Antonio Washington finished 11th in the 100-meter dash in 12.17 seconds and sophomore Magnus Haynia finished 15th in the 800-meter run in 2:14.64.