After Miscalculation Is Rectified, Westhampton Beach Girls Indoor Track Wins Third Consecutive League IV Championship

The Westhampton Beach girls indoor track team won its third consecutive League IV Championship on Saturday at Suffolk County Community College in Brentwood, but the team didn’t have its typical celebration afterward.

That’s because Sayville was initially declared champions by meet officials. After Westhampton Beach won the final meet of the day, the 4x800-meter relay, officials tallied all the points and declared Sayville league champion. After conferring with his assistant coaches, Westhampton Beach girls head coach John Broich asked officials to go over the results one last time and it was found that they mistakenly omitted results from the 55-meter hurdles, which Valerie Finke (9.3 seconds) and Madison Phillips (9.89 seconds) placed second and fourth in, respectively. With the addition of those points, the ’Canes won the meet, albeit closely, 114-110.

After Sayville had already taken a few victory laps around the track, the ’Canes were given back their plaque and had a victory lap of their own.

“Not going to lie, it was a bit awkward,” Finke admitted on Sunday night. “We were all still getting ready to leave and kind of moping around, sad that we didn’t win, when Broich got us all in a huddle. I thought he was going to give the, ‘You did your best speech,’ only for him to tell us that they recounted and we had won.

“No one really understood what was happening at first,” she continued. “We didn’t really make the connection at first, but when Broich held up the plaque everything made sense and it clicked and we all started to clap and scream. We had a few girls cry.”

Finke has been on the team for four years and therefore has been a part of all three league championships. She said after all was said and done, this may have been the best year yet.

“We only had the one victory lap, not as many as they took, but it was maybe a super happy lap,” she said. “I think it was probably the most well won and memory-defining moment because it was so close. There was a lot of back and forth and a lot of emotions, especially for us seniors, only for us to actually win, and we beat Sayville. It was such a crazy experience, and the bus ride back was just so much fun.”

The miscalculation of the points not withstanding, the meet did really come down to the final event, the 4x8, because Sayville won both the 4x2 and, somewhat surprisingly, the 4x4, one of the main events for the ’Canes. But Katie Baker, Keira Falvey, Rose Hayes and Jamie Kelly all came through, finishing the 4x8 in 10:25.34, nearly 30 seconds ahead of second place Mount Sinai.

“We’ve got a good group of kids,” Broich said of his team. “They didn’t give up. They fought hard. You know, a lot of these kids don’t have a lot of rest between events, so they definitely persevered. It could have gone either way. Mount Sinai wasn’t in it as much as I thought they would be, but Sayville was and it had a good meet. Both teams wanted to win just as much. We just persevered. We didn’t dominate like we have in the past but for what we had, every kid gave me the most they could give and that’s all I could really ask for.”

Finke was one of the top point scorers for the ’Canes. She won the 300-meter dash in 43.21 seconds with teammate Anabelle Vellosa placing second in 45.72 seconds. And Finke also placed third in the triple jump with a mark at 31 feet 6 inches.

The senior said one of the things that really got the team pumped was when she gave Broich a little haircut just prior to the start of the meet. She brought a pair of dog clippers and gave her head coach a Mohawk.

“To help build confidence and get the team super pumped, Broich let us shave his head, basically,” Finke explained, through a laugh. “He let all the girls shave different parts of his head. Even Anabelle let us shave the back of her head and myself and the rest of the girls just ate it all up. It’s something we’re never going to forget. What coach showed us by doing that is that he’s confident enough to let us go wild and give him a crazy haircut and it was such an experience. We were all so excited and said, ‘Well, we can’t lose after that.’”

After completing the 300, Vellosa directly headed to the starting line for the 1,500-meter race walk. After six laps in, Broich told Vellosa to bow out of the race so she could be ready for the start of the 4x200-meter relay, which directly followed the race walk. It was difficult, she said, but something she was willing to do for the team.

“This meet was actually a new challenge for me because I’ve never gone back-to-back like that,” she explained. “I was Jello-legged in the middle of the race walk and we may not have done well in the 4x2 but we got enough points where it helped put us over the edge.”

Vellosa added that the team started winning league titles when she joined the team a few years ago so she has made it a personal goal of hers and the team to strive for that every season.

“The seniors and I, we made sure we got the underclassmen to know how important it was for us and both of our coaches,” she said. “We just love our team so much, they put so much heart into it and treat us like family. We’ve developed such a quick bond and a lot of them are new kids to the team, but they showed so much grit and I’m just really proud of our team.”

Maya Cirincione had not competed in the 1,500-meter race walk all that much prior to Saturday, but she was able to place second in 8:59.41 to score a good amount of points and contribute greatly to the final score. Emily Tully finished fourth in the race in 9:25.39.

Halle Geller placed third in the 55-meter dash in 7.83 seconds. Rose Hayes placed second in the 1,000-meter race in 3:18.33. Jamie Kelly placed fifth in the race in 3:25.69 while Gabby Wendel placed seventh in 3:33.65. Hayes also placed second in the 1,500-meter race in 5:09.39. Falvey finished fifth in 5:13.20 and Oona Murphy placed sixth in 5:25.40.

Lily Strebel placed second in the 600-meter run in 1:43.62 with teammate Jessica Dunn finishing right behind her in 1:48.32.

As for the boys, who had their league championships on Sunday at Suffolk-Brentwood, they placed sixth out of 11 teams with 36 points. First-year head coach Joe Mensch said the team has been a little lighter than normal in terms of numbers which limited its chances of being able to compete for a league title.

Gavin Ehlers won the 1,000-meter race in 2:32.09. Ehlers found out that he was invited to compete in the mile at the prestigious Millrose Games after qualifying at the trials a few weeks back. The invitation-only Games are this Sunday at the Armory Track and Field Center in New York City.

Max Haynia and Trevor Hayes took first and second, respectively, in the 1,600-meter race. Haynia crossed the finish line in 4:30.21, while Hayes finished in 4:34.45.

Will Barry took third place in the shot put with a throw of 42 feet 7 inches. Colbie Mason placed third in the high jump after reaching 5 feet 3 inches. Mason is also one of the top pole vaulters in the county, even though that event is not competed at most meets. He does plan to compete at the Ocean Breeze Invitational this Saturday on Staten Island and is expected to be in the mix for the county title next month.

The Hampton Bays boys and girls indoor track teams had their League V Championships on Saturday and Sunday, respectively.

Timothy Kraycar only had one throw, but he made it count, winning the league title in the shot put with a mark of 43 feet 1 ¼ inches. Arents Hansen placed second in the 1,000-meter race in 3:00.57. Maxwell Garcia placed third in the 600-meter run in 1:30.99. Hansen and Garcia were joined by Luca Villano and Charlie Garcia on the 4x400-meter relay team, which won its heat and placed fourth overall in 3:59.92.

Bryona Hayes led the girls with a fourth-place finish in the 300-meter dash, crossing the finish line in 45.88 seconds. Lillian Patek finished eighth in the race in 49.62 seconds. Leah Fassino finished sixth in the long jump with a leap of 13 feet 10 inches. Emma Halsey placed seventh in the triple jump with a leap of 29 feet ¼ inch.