Riverhead sends cross country runners to the state qualifier

The boys and girls cross country team at Riverhead High School needed big results at the Divisional Championships on Monday at Sunken Meadow State Park, or their season would be over. They answered the call.

After Chris Jones — who won the Riverhead News Review Athlete of the Year before heading to run for SUNY Cortland — the boys cross country team no longer had that low 17-minute runner to bring the team average down, regardless of what the other four runners would produce. With Jones on the roster, Riverhead made it to the New York State qualifier for three consecutive years. Without him, they needed a new formula in order to make it again. 

“It emphasizes the importance of every single athlete on this team,” Riverhead cross country coach Tyler Lobenhofer said. “We might only have 24 boys on the team, but 18 of them can run competitive times. That’s why we’re able to compete head-to-head against a lot of teams. This is the strongest pack I’ve ever had here. They’re all separated by just 10 to 15 seconds, and they have been continuing to push each other all year long.”

All-League award recipient Lester Soyos crossed the finish line first for the team with a time of 19:03.60. Grady Moore followed him with a time of 19:10.60. Dwayne Morgan, in his first year running cross country after already being one of the best hurdlers in the county, finished up at 19:24.20. David Dubon completed the race in 19:43.10 and Franz Ortiz-Galdamez rounded out the team’s performance chugging through at 20:58.70. The average of all their times was good enough for their fourth consecutive appearance at the New York State qualifiers. Riverhead was also racing without their All-League runner Darryl Austin, who suffered an injury.

“Would I have liked to get our time down to qualification standards earlier in the season?” Lobenhofer questioned. “Yes, of course. But I love to see that in the biggest moments, this team stepped up as a group. Last year, most of these boys could barely break 22 minutes on this course. Now we have just about everyone breaking 20 minutes, which is a testament to the hard work they have put in.”

All summer long, Lobenhofer emphasized winning a league championship this season. But after losing the first race of the season, effectively ending their chance at a championship, Lobenhofer witnessed what he feels was his proudest coaching moment of his career. 

“We talked about having the mentality to run with pain,” Lobenhofer said. “That’s what cross is really about. Being able to persevere through pain. Push when you don’t think you can push anymore. We lost touch with that a little bit. The day after the loss, we did 1,000-meter repeats on the track with active recovery. They ran all practice, pushing themselves. I’ve won county championships at Commack. We’ve sent athletes to states every single year since I’ve been here. That was by far my favorite coaching moment, seeing how that group responded when they were kicked down. From there on our goal was to make it to state quals and we did it.”

The group is only going to get stronger as they all return next year.

On the girls’ side, Riverhead hasn’t had an individual girl runner make it to the state qualifier since 2019. Sophomore Julia Chycherska wanted to change that. And she was so close to making the time needed coming into the final day of the regular season.

“This is what Julia has been working towards ever since she joined the team in eighth grade,” Lobenhofer said. “She’s a tremendous athlete, and I think her best days are right ahead of her.”

She was .9 seconds away from qualifying coming into the divisional race. 

“I told her at the start of the summer that she’s running with the boys,” Lobenhofer said. “I’ve never seen her smile so hard. She was up for the challenge. That really changed her training and mindset overall, I think.”

Chycherska, who earned her third straight All-League recognition this year, needed to break a 22:30 time to make the state qualifiers. She shattered it by 20 seconds and secured a top 10 finish overall in the race. 

“She’s got a different confidence this year,” Lobenhofer said. “You saw it today. She stayed up front the entire time and set a PR. That’s what she’s capable of doing every time out.”

Riverhead will compete in the New York State qualifier on Nov. 6.