Is there a way to filter out ping frames so they do not interfere with my test?

Sure there is! See the documentation at https://bitbucket.org/pjtr/jmeter-websocket-samplers/src/master/, specifically:

Filters To handle situations in which the server sends unsolicited messages and the occurrence of such messages is hard to predict or otherwise hard to take into account in the test plan, filters can be used to discard such messages before they are seen by a sampler. There are three different kinds of filters:

Ping/Pong frame filter: discards all ping and pong frames and has an option to automatically respond to pings (with a pong of course)