Wasserman, Wolves win cross country state championships

Slides 1-6: John Jay coach Dey Dey celebrates with his team (left to right) Sloan Wasserman, Ainsley Graham, Maya Serai, Brodie Albert, Mia Haimelin, and Emma Barniv, after the Wolves won the New York State Class B cross-country team title at the state championships. Sloan Wasserman sprints to the finish line alone in first place as the state champion. Maya Serai was the second John Jay runner to cross the finish line in 14th place. Emma Barniv was 20th overall to help John Jay win the team title. Mia Haimelin broke her personal best time by 30 seconds to be the fourth finisher for John Jay. Wasserman set a new course record as she crossed the finish line at 17:06. The team celebrates. Jim MacLean Photos

By JIM MACLEAN 

No fear. Now was the time to go for it.

This was the race they were aiming for, they went for it, and they brought home a new trophy as New York state champions.

All season long you could see the confidence growing for senior Sloan Wasserman and her John Jay cross-country teammates. They knew the potential was there, they knew how hard they had worked, and they dominated the field at Bowdoin Park to win the Section 1 championship and earn a trip to the New York State Championships on Nov. 15, at Queensbury High School in Warren County.

Wasserman had been here before, finishing second in the state last year on the same course, and third as a sophomore. This year she was determined all season long to get back and change the ending, and her team was determined to get there with her and push each other to the finish line.

Nobody was catching Wasserman. She took the lead as the runners entered the woods and she never looked back. Wasserman attacked the course at Queensbury and never slowed down, pulling away from the field and sprinting to the finish line with a new course record at 17:06. She was nine seconds ahead of second-place finisher Maddie Laezza of Eastport/South Manor, and they were far ahead of the rest of the pack.

“It just felt so good, I was confident and my mindset was to run without fear; today I had no fear, I had fun, I was smiling, plus I was running for my team pushing me on and I just ran, I was running for my life,” Wasserman said after her victory. “I definitely was battling with the girl in second place, and around the half way point I decided it’s time, I had to go for it. I didn’t know how far behind she was, I just remember sprinting and saying this is not the time to slow down. To see the time as I crossed the finish line, it’s surreal. I can’t believe it. I’ve been running since eighth grade, and I remember talking to my mom thinking how amazing it would be to become a state champion, and I did it. I’m so happy.”

It was another impressive race for the Boston College commit, the fastest time of the day for all four girls varsity races and another record-setting performance.

She became the first John Jay cross-country runner in school history to be crowned a New York state champion.

“For Sloan, all year the goal was to make it fun, go out there with the right mind set and the battle is won, then go surprise yourself,” John Jay coach Dey Dey said of Wasserman. “I know how hard she has been working all year long and I knew she could do this. She had a really good day and I’m so happy for her.”

With Wasserman leading the way, it was then up to the rest of the Wolves to perform and they delivered. Maya Serai was 15th and Emma Barniv was 20th overall to both earn a place on the podium. Mia Haimelin was 35th, Brodie Albert was 54th, and Ainsley Graham was 68th as the Wolves ran away with the team title.

John Jay finished with a team score of 46 points to win the New York State Class B team championship. South Jefferson of Section 11 on Long Island was a distant second at 74, followed by Sayville in third at 90 and Cornwall in fourth at 91.

It was the first New York state title for a John Jay team since the girls’ cross-country team won the title back in 2017.

It was an impressive win, but it was not an easy race. Each race gets harder and harder as the season goes on with only the best runners and the best teams qualifying for a chance to compete in the state meet.

Serai is only a freshman and she was experiencing the state meet for the first time. She knew she was up against the best in the state and felt the pressure, but she delivered to be the second John Jay runner to cross the finish line.

“It was a really hard race, it felt really fast and I was really nervous, and we just had to keep pushing each other,” said Serai. “The whole experience is so exciting, staying at the hotel, a great team bonding experience. This is everything we’ve been working for and I’m so proud of this team.”

Barniv is a senior co-captain along with Wasserman, and she was determined to make the most of the opportunity to help her team win a state title in her final season. She credited coach Dey for bringing the team upstate at the start of the season to compete in a meet on the course at Queensbury as a big benefit, so that the girls were familiar with the course.

“It was a hard race, my legs were numb from the start, but I reminded myself that everyone was feeling it and we’re all in it together,” Barniv said of her team. “It made a big difference coming here at the start of the season, knowing the course and when to anticipate the hills, and it felt really good after that last hill to push it to the end. We were all pushing each other to our limits all the way to the finish line. We worked so hard and we were hoping for this, such an amazing season and I’m so proud of this team. We’ve become a united front against the state and it’s really cool to say we’re state champions.”

One of the biggest performances of the day came from Haimelin as she trimmed more than 30 seconds off her previous best time for a 5K race, finishing strong at 35th overall. Her time made a huge difference in the team score to help the Wolves win. While she admits it was a tough race against tough competition, she was confident from the start that her team would come out on top.

“I’m not surprised, I expected us to win, I knew we had it in us,” admitted Haimelin. “Coach Dey has been our motivator all season long, training us really hard. He believed in us and I’m really proud of this team. Going into the race I was just running for fun, now was the time to show what I’ve got and I just pushed as hard as I could and I ran a PR [personal record] by over 30 seconds, so I’m pretty happy.”

Dey knew what this team was capable of doing. Everybody in the state knew that Wasserman would be there and what she could do. Dey also knew he had Barniv, Graham and Haimelin back as returning veterans. And he knew the Wolves had two talented freshmen ready to join the pack in Serai and Albert.

He knew how hard they had worked all summer long to get ready for this season, and he knew it was a good opportunity to have them see the course for the prestate meet in September and inspire them to get back and make it a special day at this race.

“This is what we started to see in July, I told them our goal is to go to states as a team, and I couldn’t be happier with what they did today as a team,” Dey said of his Wolves. “The plan was to come here for the prestate meet to see the course, because we knew we were going to come back here as a team. For me as a competitive runner, now as their coach, I try to bring it to them so they can learn how to push themselves to go further. Maya is just a freshman and I didn’t get to train with her this summer, but I know how good she can be. Emma, I always try to get in her head to tell her how good she is because she doesn’t believe in herself, but today she did it. All the hard work, in the end, she did it. I am so happy with Mia today, she never ran like that until today. I’m so happy with all of them. Especially for the freshmen, Maya and Brodie, I try not to put too much pressure on them, but they know now, they see how everyone looks at us in Section 1, all over New York state. They know how good a team we are. The girls took that pressure in a good way, and they earned this, they’re state champs.”

For Wasserman, as a senior, she knows this has been a magical season for the Wolves. She has been to the state meet three years in a row since joining cross-country as a sophomore after playing varsity soccer her freshman year, and the chance to end her career as a state champ while also having her team win the state title has made this an unforgettable season.

“To win as a team, this is super special, so amazing, I can’t even describe it,” Wasserman said of her teammates. “I’m so proud of these girls, we’ve all worked so hard and this has been such an incredible season. I told them at the start, it was time for us to do what we knew we could do, and we did it.”

And they’re not done yet. With their state title performance John Jay has earned the chance to compete one more time as a team, the Wolves will be back on the course at Bowdoin Park on Saturday, Nov. 22, for the New York State Federation Championships.