Westhampton Beach Boys Cross Country Wins Fourth Consecutive County Title, Will Run For A State Title This Weekend

Everything is going according to plan for the Westhampton Beach boys cross country team.

The Hurricanes, as expected, won their fourth consecutive Suffolk County Class B Championship at the Section XI Championships, also known as the state qualifier, this past Friday at Sunken Meadow State Park in Kings Park. Senior Gavin Ehlers (16:35), junior Max Haynia (16:44.8) and sophomore Trevor Hayes (16:46.4) swept the top three placements of the race to clinch the victory.

Westhampton Beach will be competing at the New York State Championships, which are this Saturday, November 13, at Chenango Valley State Park. The boys Class B race is expected to start at 11 a.m.

Ehlers, who has won a county team title four of his five years on varsity, said after the win that it’s been a pretty good run.

“I came into today, biggest fear was Max,” he joked. “So I just came in, I wanted to deliver, get the job done. We ran together for the first 4K of the race and really just opened it up. We kept focused. Once you drop the hammer, you can’t take your foot off the gas and that was kind of the plan. Kept form together, ran strong and came through, so I felt pretty good doing it.”

David Alvarado, a senior, was the next Hurricane to finish, ninth overall, in 17:47.5, followed by senior Cole Cammarata (20th/ 18:34) and sophomores Jack Cassidy (34th/19:05) and Sean Ryan (42nd/19:24.8). Westhampton Beach finished with 31 points, 78 points ahead of second place East Hampton.

Alvarado missed the division championships a few weeks ago due to an SAT he had to take. He was glad he was able to join in on the action last week.

“It’s an honor, it’s a privilege to run with those guys,” Alvarado said of his teammates. “They raise the bar, and I just try and run behind them. I just do the best that I can to help the team out.”

Westhampton Beach head coach Jack Ryan said his team ran a very good race on Friday after a somewhat sloppy race at divisions. But things are on track for states this weekend.

“Everybody raced their individual race plan exceptionally well, in my opinion, and we saw some big PRs where I thought we were due,” he said. “And for the guys who didn’t PR, they ran on par of what they’ve been running all year, so I can’t complain with that.”

The ’Canes have a legitimate shot at accomplishing a few things this weekend. They have been ranked second in the state behind perennial powerhouse Burnt Hills all season, but Ryan thinks his team has what it takes to take it down.

Ehlers also has a legitimate shot at winning the race individually. LaSalle Institute senior Gitch Hayes finished 20 seconds ahead of Ehlers in the only race the two have met up in at the Manhattan Invitational on October 9. Ehlers said he felt like he had a little left in the tank that day and could have beaten Hayes, but he’ll get his shot to do so this weekend.

“I feel like the longer the race gets — that was a 4K this race is going to be a 5K — I’m feeling pretty good coming in,” he said. “I’m not going to guarantee a win. Obviously not the favorite to win it, but I’m certainly going to try. I’m not backing off, and it should be fun.”

The course at Chenango Valley is rather flat, at least compared to Sunken Meadow. It is ran mostly on a golf course, so there are some rolling hills, but nothing like “Cardiac Hill” at Sunken Meadow. Ryan is expecting times to be rather fast, but he did say that weather could play a factor. The venue is near the Binghamton area. With his team’s race being the first boys race after four girls races, the condition of the course will be something to keep an eye on as well, all factors that will affect all runners involved.

What is almost certain is that the team will improve on its best finish ever at the state meet, which was sixth overall back in 2019, the last time there was a state meet.

“What I want from the guys is to go up there and I want us to run the best race that Westhampton cross country can,” Ryan said. “If they do that, I’ll consider that a win in my book. Burnt Hills is really an incredible talent and got to respect that going in and you got to know what you’re going up against. By no means are we shying away competing with them and I think it’s definitely within our cards to beat them, but what I want the guys to focus on this week is running our race, not somebody else’s race. You start worrying about running someone else’s race you’re going to run into a few problems.”

The Westhampton Beach girls team finished third in the county in what was an extremely competitive girls Class B race, which was also Friday at Sunken Meadow. Sayville and Shoreham-Wading River tied in overall points (63) with Sayville taking the victory on the sixth-runner tiebreaker. The Hurricane girls finished with 83 points followed by East Hampton’s 89.

Westhampton Beach sophomore Oona Murphy led the girls team, finishing 10th overall in 21:04.2. Senior Rose Hayes finished 13th in 21:13.7 and was followed by freshman Jamie Kelly (22nd/22:43.3), sophomore Gaby Wendel (26th/23:15.8), senior Keira Falvey (33rd/23:55.6) and sophomores Miriam Neubauer (44th/27:12.5) and Madison Phillips (45th/30:04).