Haimelin leads John Jay to second place finish in invitational cross country meet

The John Jay girls team takes off at the starting line on its way to a second-place finish in the Varsity II race. Mia Haimelin, at left, used a strong kick to finish second. JIM MACLEAN PHOTO

By JIM MACLEAN

John Jay cross-country coach Dey Dey was expecting it to come down to a two-team race between the Wolves in their purple uniforms and the green uniforms of Ward Melville. That’s exactly how it worked out in the Varsity II girls race at the Section 1 Coaches Invitational cross-country meet on Saturday, Oct. 17, at Bowdoin Park in Wappingers Falls.

Heading down the straightaway towards the finish line, John Jay junior Mia Haimelin saw a green shirt ahead of her and she knew what she had to do. Haimelin is one of the top 800-meter racers in Section 1, and she turned on the speed, passing four runners in the final hundred yards including a green shirt, to finish second overall with a time of 19:36.4.

“Coach Dey was telling us the green team was our main competition, so that drove me and I saw that green shirt and just let my 800 skills kick in and started racing and beat her by a 10th of a second,” Haimelin said of her big finish.

John Jay won the New York State Class B championship last fall with state champ Sloan Wasserman and fellow senior captain Emma Barniv leading the way. Now, the current Wolves are out to prove they can do it again and they’re currently ranked second in the state in Class B. On Saturday the Wolves faced a bunch of Class A schools in their race at Bowdoin, including Ward Melville, one of the top Class A teams from Long Island. Ward Melville prevailed to win the team title with a score of 45. John Jay was second at 60, and Tappan Zee was a distant third at 122.

“First race of the year on this course and I definitely felt a lot stronger than last year and executed pretty well,” Haimelin said of the course at Bowdoin where the Section 1 championships will be held on Nov. 7. “We’re aiming to win counties, and our main goal is to win sectionals and get back to win states again. It will be a lot harder now that Sloan and Emma are gone, but we’ll give it our best.”Despite having no seniors on the roster for its top nine runners, John Jay showed once again at Bowdoin what they are capable of doing in the weeks ahead with three runners in the top 10 and five in the top 21. Maya Serai was the second finisher for the Wolves in seventh place, and Brodie Albert ran a strong race to finish 10th. Freshman Lila Rotter was in 20th, with freshman teammate Rylee Gaudron right behind in 21st. Eighth-grader Cecelia Kaleda was 34th, Alyvia Anderson was 78th, Megan Krebs was 82nd, and her twin sister Charlotte Krebs was 92nd for the Wolves.

“Overall, I’m very happy, first race this season at Bowdoin and what they did today is tremendous,” said Dey. “I know they can do even better. I told them about that team (Ward Melville), and they are learning that to compete as a team you have to know what uniforms are in front of you. We’re a very young team and they’re trying to show they can do it on their own without Sloan. Mia ended up catching all of them and her hard work is paying off. Maya and Brodie both ran great. The two freshmen were in their first varsity race here and now they know the course and I think they’ll do much better. They are all so hard on themselves, but they are running well and I know they can do it.”

Rohan Patel led the John Jay boys as he finished 18th overall in the boys Varsity II race with a time of 17:42.2. His brother Tarun Patel was second for the Wolves in 40th place, followed by Jacob Chiang in 98th, Gavin Dacey in 108th, and Daniel Bolanos in 145th. Rohan just missed qualifying for the Section 1 team competing at the state meet and he hopes to make the cut at the sectional championships in his senior year.

“This was like a tune-up for all the kids coming back to Bowdoin in a couple of weeks,” said John Jay coach Tyler Sayre. “I think Rohan still has his best race ahead of him. He was so close last year and it’s definitely his goal to finish strong and qualify for states.”

John Jay is set to compete at the Westchester County Championship meet on Saturday, Oct. 24, at the Milton Sports Dome, before returning to Bowdoin for the Section 1 championships on Nov. 7.