The conversations have lasted for at least a year, about a topic they all know so well.
In restaurants, at school, at each other’s houses, the members of the Manhasset boys cross country team would discuss a goal that no XC team at the school had ever reached: winning a state title.
Manhasset has, of course, won state titles in many sports, including most recently, boys and girls lacrosse, and boys basketball.
But the fall sport of cross country, run far away from the glare of most fans and the fellow Manhasset students, had never seen Set win it all.
“I would say really in the last 12 months, we’d always say that ‘we could be really good this year’ and ‘we can’t wait to see what happens at states,’” said senior Stije Huinink. “But I don’t think we verbalized it like we were gonna win it. But we were all thinking about it.”
On Nov. 16, all those thoughts and affirmations came true. The septet of Manhasset runners torched the field in the New York State Class B championships held in Queensbury, N.Y., blitzing to a 49-point score win over second-place Pittsford-Mendon.
How rare was this win? No Nassau County cross country squad had won states at any classification since 1984.
Led by Blake Sealy’s 7th place finish (in 15.43), this group of athletes made all the training and hard yards pay off, and when it was over, the tears flowed.
Huinink said he cried first. Senior Alex Armendariz was definitely crying. So was coach Steve Steiner, the leader of this group who inspires, pushes and cajoles all of them to be the best versions of themselves.
“It was hugging and crying happy tears, all of us together in a circle,” Armendariz said. “It was excitement, relief, happiness … all of it good.”
For Steiner, the head coach since 2010 and whose team finished second last November, the win validated many things.
“It’s really special to see them celebrate together and know that everything we asked them to do, and that they asked themselves to do, has paid off,” Steiner said. “To achieve something like this, for our school and our community, is something we’ll never forget.”
The win was truly a team effort, but after Steiner the person maybe most responsible for this was Huinink, who’s been on the squad for five years.
He served as Steiner’s best recruiter in the past three years, convincing Sealy, Ryan Boldi and John Hogan to give cross country a shot.
All three were integral to the win, as were sophomore Nick Katsoulis (who was Manhasset’s second-best runner at states, finishing 15th, in 16:01.9) and junior Braeden Jackelow.
“I talked to those guys who were good athletes and runners and told them we were trying to win and build a culture here,” Huinink said. “All those upstate teams that win, like Saratoga and Monroe-Woodbury, they have a culture of running at their school, built over years. A winning culture. And that’s what I wanted us to build here.”
As good as the team was last year, Steiner knew they needed to be challenged, so he sought out the best competition this fall and schlepped his kids all over the East Coast.
“Taking these kids to big races this year to get better competition was huge,” Steiner said. “One of the parents told me we logged about 2,100 (driving) miles since the summer. But it made them better and showed them what it would take to win.”
Manhasset’s team is expected to get a celebration similar to what other state champs at the school got, athletics director Christine Raffo said, and as of Thursday final details had not yet been made.
The boys themselves had a little pasta party Sunday night and finally could rest, content in the history they’d made.
“Every single weekend, we’re with each other, constantly,” Armendariz said. “And to have that bond, and know each other so well, to know that when the gun goes off to start the race we’re all going to be there for each other, it’s pretty special. To finish our careers like this, as seniors, is pretty special.”
