Max Haynia Finishes Stellar Running Career at State Track Championships; Hayes, Phillips, Strebel Also Compete

What a ride its been for Max Haynia.

It was one that was bound to end at some point. It could have ended at this weekend’s Nationals, but, for myriad reasons, the Westhampton Beach senior has chosen to end his high school running career at the New York State Track and Field Championships, which were held Friday and Saturday at Middletown High School.

It was there where Haynia, still nursing an IT band injury, led the 3,200-meter race — which was run in a downpour — for much of the time. Ultimately, though, those factors caught up to Haynia, who finished in fourth place in 9:10.12, good enough for both All-Federation and All-State honors. Monroe-Woodbury senior Collin Gilstrap, who has become not only a key competitor, but a friend to Haynia throughout the seasons in cross country in the fall and indoor track during the winter, won the race in 9:04.72. Right after the race, Haynia went up to the Stony Brook-bound Gilstrap and the two shared a big hug, one Haynia says was both out of respect competitively and as a friend as the two have become close over the years, running at various regional and national events.

As previously mentioned, Haynia could have continued his season this weekend at any one of the national championships being hosted throughout the country. But due to his current injury, and the fact that he’s leaving for boot camp at West Point to join the U.S. Army in less than two weeks, he’s opted to call an end to his high school running career, one that will go down as one of the best in Westhampton Beach school history.

Haynia started off his senior year by winning the New York State Class B title, becoming just the second male runner in Westhampton Beach history to win a state title, the last being Kevin Hogan in 1989. He followed that up by winning the Nike New York Regionals championship 5K, which earned him an all-expense paid trip to Nike Nationals in Oregon.

Haynia then went ahead and placed sixth overall, third among public school finishers, at the New York State Indoor Track and Field Championships, and then placed second in the championship 5K at Nike Indoor Nationals.

Without much time to really reflect on his high school career, Haynia, a five-year varsity runner who also happens to be an Eagle Scout, could only call it “surreal.”

“It’s been a crazy experience, probably the best experience of my life, so far,” he said. “It’s opened many doors for me and everyone has been amazing along the way, to everyone I’ve ran with, both teammates and competitors, plus all of my coaches. They’ve all made it an amazing experience.

“The only thing I wish I had back were the years I lost to COVID, which were the end of my freshman year, where we were expecting to go to Penn Relays and nationals,” Haynia added. “And really that lasted to the beginning of my junior year, where it was still weird because of COVID.”

Haynia suffered his IT band injury while running in the Arcadia Invitational in California in early April. It was there where he placed 18th in the 3,200-meter race in 8:57.77, well below the state super standard of 9:14, essentially qualifying for states then.

According to the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, the IT, short for iliotibial, band is a thick band of fibrous tissue that runs along the outside of your leg. It starts at the hip and extends to the outer side of the shinbone just below the knee joint. The IT band works with the muscles in your thigh to provide support to the outside of the knee joint. It’s a painful condition and one that can lead to pain in various parts of the leg. It was that injury that forced Haynia to drop out of his race not even halfway through at the state qualifier a week prior to states.

Outside of a shower early in the day on Friday, the meet was blanketed mostly by sun, until about an hour before the boys 3,200-meter race when dark clouds started to roll in and temperatures dropped considerably. Rain began falling, albeit lightly, for the first of three heats in the 3,200, but by the time the third and fastest heat ran, which Haynia competed in, it became more steady and, at times, a downpour.

Still, though, Haynia went about his business. He seemed to get a little blocked in off the starting line, but about three laps into the race, he made his move and took the lead, one that he kept for much of the race. Halfway through the race, Haynia had a considerable lead on everyone except for Gilstrap who was a close second. But in the final lap, Gilstrap overtook Haynia, and with not much more to give, he was overtaken down the final 200 meters or so by Bay Shore junior Jake Gogarty and Arlington junior Ethan Green.

“The race started out slow, with mostly everyone starting out at 66 [seconds], then it really slowed down to about 70 after the second lap to the point where it was as slow as the second heat,” Haynia explained. “If we were going to try and break 9 [minutes], and for me to have a good chance of winning, I knew I needed the pace to drop, so three laps in I realized that, and so with about 1,200 meters left I went for it. But between me being injured and having to lead the whole race, I just didn’t have enough speed to gut it out and keep the gap.

“I’m not mad,” he added. “I’m happy with how I ran. I’d rather it be a gutsy performance and lose and be able to say I took a chance than not try at all. I was happy with how my season went. I would have liked to have ended it with the win but if it doesn’t happen, it doesn’t happen. I was happy how I ran tactically. In a three month season, I was running less than three days a week for a month and a half, basically from early April to mid May, so I didn’t get to run as much as I would have liked.”

Haynia was joined by fellow teammate Trevor Hayes upstate and a pair of girls in Madison Phillips and Lily Strebel. Of those three, Strebel was the only one to finish her event, the 1,500-meter race, finishing 10th overall in 4:37.29. Westhampton Beach girls track head coach John Broich said it was not her personal best, just slightly off, but he knows she gave her all. Strebel will be competing at the New Balance Nationals in Philadelphia this weekend. Her teammate, Oona Murphy, is heading to Oregon to compete in the 2,000-meter steeplechase at Nike Nationals.

Phillips twisted her ankle during the 100-meter hurdles of the pentathlon a week prior at the state qualifier, and while she was able to gut out a county title then, the injury seemed to catch up to her at the state championships. After finishing 11th in the 100-meter hurdles in 16.15 seconds, she had a bit of a rough go, at least by her typical standards, in the high jump, tying for 18th place at 1.37 meters. Phillips finished Friday’s events strong by finishing seventh in the shot put with a throw of 8.78 meters. She then returned on Saturday and leaped 4.38 meters to finish 21st in the long jump, but with the final event, the 800-meter race, still to go, she decided not to run the race, essentially bowing out of the competition altogether after having accrued 2,025 points.

Broich said it was tough seeing Phillips not finish her competition, at the same time she seemed off throughout the meet because of her injury. He was very happy overall with the seasons Phillips and Strebel had.

“Very, very satisfied as to what they did as individual team leaders,” he said. “What I was looking for, for them, was experience. Lily has been involved in state meets before and she’s had better outcomes, but her time was her second fastest time, and I know she doesn’t hold back, so she gave what she had that day. Madison, her performances just weren’t the same as they were at counties or the state qualifier. Something seemed off.”

Hayes had one of the first events of the day on Saturday, competing in the second heat of the 3,000-meter steeplechase. He kept up with the leading pack of the race, albeit in the back, for the entire race, but with just a few laps to go, Hayes took himself off the track and laid down right away on the infield turf. It turns out he was suffering through major cramps in his legs for much of the race and that forced him to make an early exit.