9 Photos
Aidan McKeon DREW BUDD
Eli Amos DREW BUDD
Mia in the 1,500-meter race walk. DREW BUDD
Matthew Papajohn DREW BUDD
T.J. Hill DREW BUDD
Cesar Ramos DREW BUDD
Lucy Mansfield DREW BUDD
Mikal Ling Pantophlet DREW BUDD
Rieve Nydegger DREW BUDD
Westhampton Beach girls track head coach John Broich started the Westhampton Beach Invitational solely as a girls event back in 1991. It wasn’t until five or six years later, he said, that he opened it up to include boys as well.
On Monday, Broich recalled that first meet back in the early 1990s, and running the whole show, from clerking the races to running the concession stands, his wife making multiple runs to grocery stores, and the parents of players providing a lot of the food. Over the years, the invitational has grown — and on Saturday, it may have reached its peak.
The Westhampton Beach boys and girls track team welcomed 3,000 of the top track athletes in the county, which included 31 boys teams and 30 girls teams, in what some have said is one of the top three meets Suffolk County has ever seen.
Broich has gotten more help to run the meet over the years, although he was still clerking some of the events on Saturday, and his voice could be heard over the speakers at times directing people on where to go and what to do. Overall, it was a rousing success.
Broich did bring back the invitational last year but with at a very limited capacity with many COVID-19 protocols still in place.
“We used to have 14 to 15 schools come in, and even then that was a little chaotic. I guess you could say I’ve gotten better at delegating since then,” he said. “I thought we did a pretty good job considering how large of an event it was, but there’s always room for improvement. I have some ideas on where we can get better.”
Westhampton Beach boys track head coach Joe Mensch, in his first year coaching the team, was impressed and said he didn’t realize how big it actually was until the night before.
“Especially having all these people come out after COVID, it was good to see everybody in one spot, and to have that much competition on one track is phenomenal,” he said. “Shout out to Broich, who really kind of handled most of the hard stuff. I just tried to piece the little things together, and it was definitely a long day, but I just tried to put the little fires that came up here and there.”
Many of the Westhampton Beach athletes stepped up in their home meet.
Maya Cirincione won the 1,500-meter race, in 7:47.71, and the 4x800-meter relay team won, in 10:37.27. Valerie Finke placed second in both the 400-meter intermediate hurdles (5:00.41) and 100-meter hurdles (16.69 seconds). Halle Geller placed third in the 100-meter dash, in 12.81 seconds, and seventh in the 200-meter dash, in 26.93 seconds. Lily Strebel placed fourth in the 800-meter run, in 2:26.82, and seventh in the 1,500-meter, in 5:00.41. The 4x100-meter relay team placed sixth, in 53.62 seconds.
The boys were missing some of their top runners on Saturday, with both Gavin Ehlers and Trevor Hayes not competing, but they still had a couple of notable performances. Max Haynia placed second in the 1,600-meter race, in 4:30.54, and Will Barry placed second in the shot put with a throw of 45 feet 9½ inches.
Asha Pensa-Johnson won the discus with a throw of 106 feet to lead the Hampton Bays girls and boys at the Westhampton Beach Invitational. Bryona Hayes placed sixth in the triple jump with a leap of 31 feet 4¼ inches.
T.J. Kraycar led the Baymen boys by placing third in the shot put with a throw of 43 feet 10 inches. Joffre Proano placed sixth in the pole vault by reaching a personal-best 10 feet, and Maxwell Garcia was seventh in the 200-meter dash, in a season’s-best 23.90 seconds, and 10th in the long jump with a leap of 18 feet 10 inches.
