On a cold, rainy day at the Nike NY Cross Regionals (NXR), Alex DeCicco placed eighth overall on the 5K course at Bowdoin Park in Wappingers Falls to qualify for Nike Cross Nationals (NXN) next weekend in Portland, Ore.
Her time of 18:23 is a Sachem East record as well as the third fastest time by an athlete from Suffolk County ever. NXN qualifying procedures earn the top two teams and the top five individuals not on a qualifying team in each of the 9 regions an all expense paid trip to the Nike World Headquarters in Oregon to compete in a true National Championship event, the only of its kind in high school sports.
Defending National Champs Fayetteville-Manlius won this region (38 pts), Saratoga Springs finished second (80 pts), and North Rockland was third (117 pts). With the top two teams automatically qualifying and with the addition of North Rockland by the NXN selection committee as an “at-large” team qualifier, DeCicco became the fifth individual qualifier of the region, and the first from Sachem since Rachel Paul in 2011.
With DeCicco leading the charge, Sachem East concluded the most successful cross country season in program history, their fourth place finish at Regionals besting the eighth place finish of the 2014 squad.
Val Romero joined DeCicco in earning All-Region honors with her 21st place finish (19:06), Rachel Ruggiero placed 38th (19:40), and Lindsey Dodenhoff just missed breaking 20 minutes, her 20:01 putting her in 56th place. Tiffany Ly (73- 20:23), Jill Manfredi (77-20:30), and Caitlin O’Hehir (114- 21:49), helped East pull out the fourth place team finish.
Finishing fourth set the East Arrows up for an “at-large” consideration from the NXN selection committee along with the 3rd and fourth place finishers from each of the nine total regions. While they did not ultimately receive a “bid” to the prestigious Championship Meet in Portland, Oregon, the East Arrows may find themselves nationally ranked after upsetting national powers East Aurora and Shenendahowa.
Meet procedures also allow strong squads to enter a second team in the Open Race primarily made up of teams that did not qualify for the Championship race.
In a show of program depth, the squad made up of Ciara Murphy (21:15), Chelsea Benedict (22:04), Kaitlin Veigl (22:05), Kaylie Wessberg (22:19), Rachel Semetsis (22:25), Shayna Arrigo (22:58), and Lauren Harris (23:08) notched fifth place in New York, another program best, and seventh overall out of the 9 states represented in the New York/Northeast Open Race.