Westhampton Beach honors scholar-athletes Schultz and Boughal for Class of 2026

Westhampton Beach High School’s Class of 2026 did not choose between the classroom and the court. Brady Schultz and Maiya Boughal, named valedictorian and salutatorian, showed how the school’s top students also carried heavy athletic loads, a familiar Hamptons formula for families who measure success in AP scores, varsity letters and 6 a.m. practices.

Schultz’s résumé was the most layered of the two. He was a National Merit semifinalist, an AP Scholar with Distinction and an AP Capstone recipient, while also serving as president of the National Honor Society and belonging to the school’s Math, Foreign Language and Science honor societies. On the tennis side, he co-captained the boys varsity team, earned an All-Division title and also served as manager of the girls varsity team. That combination, leadership on one bench and production on the other, made him a rare fixture in the school’s tennis program.

But Schultz’s reach went well beyond tennis. He performed in theater, sang at an elite level with All-State and All-County recognition, participated in science research, worked as a certified EMT and sailed competitively. His first-place finish at the North American Sunfish Championships and 56th-place result at the world championship in Ecuador underscored how much ground he covered outside the classroom. He plans to double major in biochemistry and Spanish.

Boughal brought a similarly demanding balance to the Class of 2026. She was an AP Scholar with Distinction and an AP Capstone seal recipient, and she belonged to the National, Math, Foreign Language and Science honor societies. In lacrosse, she earned All-Division and All-Tournament honors. Outside school, she was a certified ocean lifeguard, a detail that fit the same East End blend of discipline, water skill and endurance that shapes so many multi-sport athletes here.

Boughal will attend Dartmouth University in the fall to play lacrosse and study neuroscience on a pre-med track. Together, she and Schultz made the case Westhampton Beach knows well: the athletes who last in this pipeline are usually the ones who can carry a load. In this senior class, tennis, lacrosse, science and service all sat in the same conversation, and Schultz’s role in the boys tennis program fit that larger picture exactly.