Westhampton Beach Boys Cross Country Overcomes Last-Minute Adversity, Wins Division III Title

They say adversity brings out the best in people. The Westhampton Beach boys cross country team proved that on Tuesday afternoon at the Division III Championships at Sunken Meadow Park in Kings Park.

At around 1 p.m. Tuesday, about an hour before his team got on the bus to make its hour trip west, Westhampton Beach head coach Jack Ryan found out that one of his top runners, Max Haynia, had been pulled out of class and placed in COVID-19 quarantine due to contact tracing. It was a quick punch to the gut for the Hurricanes, but they responded by doing what they were expected to do all along, win the division title, and do so going away.

Gavin Ehlers won the 2.5-mile race in 12:47.68 and, in a bit of a surprise, was followed by his freshman teammate Trevor Hayes, who crossed the finish line in 13:24.73. Rudy Scala was the next Hurricane to cross the finish line in 14:42.99, placing 12th overall. Junior David Alvarado placed 15th overall in 14:53.69 and freshman Jake Cassidy rounded out the team’s top five, placing 22nd in 15:42.34.

Both Coach Ryan and Ehlers said the plan was to start the race as fast as they possibly could, so that if they didn’t win the race outright, they could, at the very least, qualify for next week’s county meet via a quick five-man average; teams that don’t win their respective divisions can still reach counties if their average hits, or is below, a certain threshold. Ehlers was expected to be pushed for the division title individually by Eastport-South Manor’s Michael Silveri, but he was absent from Tuesday’s race for unknown reasons.

Therefore, Ehlers had to push himself to run as fast as he could without anyone really pushing him for the race lead, which is easier said than done.

“It was pretty tough to go out there and do it all on my own, but I knew I was doing it for these guys on the team,” he said.

Ryan said Ehlers is at the top of his game right now.

“He is incredibly fit right now. I’ve never seen him this fit. I have seen very few distance runners in my lifetime that are as fit as he is right now,” he said.

Hayes and Haynia have been so close in races and times this season that, with Ehlers being the team’s best runner, they were basically interchangeable as the team’s second-best runners. But with the circumstances that they were coming into the race, no one would have expected Hayes to finish second overall. But he did.

“There was definitely a lot [of nerves], especially with the short notice with Max not being able to make it today,” Hayes said. “It kind of added a lot of stress, but I’m really proud of all the boys. They really stepped up and performed well today.

“My coach, he gave me a game plan,” he added. “There were some kids I knew I had to be ahead of coming into this, but he gave me a pep talk and I knew that I had to be out on that path that was chasing [Ehlers], if not I had to be leading it.”

Ryan was proud of the way his runners performed.

“All of the guys really kind of stepped up today. They knew that they had a job to do. They knew that they owed it to Max to come out here and do their best, at least give him a shot to run next week for us.”

The ’Canes now gear up for the Section XI Championships next Thursday, April 22, back at Sunken Meadow, where they’ll looking for their third consecutive county title. Haynia will be expected to be back by then, Ryan said, and with a full team intact, he expects nothing less than one last victory to close out the season.

“We’re going in there with a healthy level of confidence,” he said. “We know what we need to do, we know what we’re capable of doing, and so showing up and doing anything less than what we’re capable of would obviously be a disappointment.”

The girls Division III Championships are this Thursday, April 15, at Sunken Meadow at 3:45 p.m.