Latest Sachem star to get national recognition in the racewalk
Sachem North’s Analiese Fabrizi is an All-American.
Fabrizi has run cross-country, winter and spring track since her sophomore year. She added racewalk training to her workout program beginning this past winter season. Her strong distance background and her sound racewalk mechanics earned her a spot at Large School County Championships in the winter season.
Despite part-time training in an event where most of the top racewalkers in Suffolk train full-time – Suffolk continues to produce more All-Americans than any county or state in the U.S. -, Analiese continued her quick rise through county rankings in the spring season.
At the early May St. Anthony’s Track & Field Invitational, she qualified for Nationals.
While distance running events from 800 meters up were still a big part of Analiese’s meet experience, preparation for her first 3,000-meter racewalk competition at Nationals became a priority in workouts. Teammate junior Gia Giudice was a great training partner to help prepare Analiese for Nationals. Gia competed at 2018 Nationals and is a two-time qualifier (2018, 2019) for the Penn Relays 5,000-meter racewalk.
Analiese took second in the 1,500-meter racewalk (7:24.03) in a season-best at Division I Championships and placed ninth in another season-best (7:18.03) at State Qualifiers in her final prep race for Nationals.
“Our race plan for Analiese at Nationals was simple,” said Sachem coach Alex Young. “She was going to settle in with the lead pack, let veterans at longer racewalk distance set a pace that Analiese could go with and, in the second half of the race, Analiese would look to move up with race leaders when the pack broke up.”
While new to the 3,000-meter distance, Analiese had competed against (and outraced) most of the Nationals field at the 1,500-meter distance. And since much of Analiese’s second half of spring season training was for the 3,000-meter distance, she and Gia were expected to be stronger at the longer distance.
This proved to be true in both cases. Gia placed seventh at Nationals in a personal-best time (15:57.65) at the distance in a time that was 1:18 faster and twelve places higher than her 2018 race.
Analiese settled in with the lead pack for the first half of the race as race leader and eventual champion Ciara Durcan of Pearl River, N.Y. pulled away from the field in a fast time. At the mile mark, Analiese made the first move as she broke away from her race pack and moved into third place in the race, a spot that she held for the remainder of her race.
Analiese finished her race 15:12.69, earning a place on the awards podium and All-American honors.
Analiese’s mom watched and cheered her daughter from her seat at North Carolina A&T University’s Aggie Stadium. Analiese joins a “Who’s Who” list of racewalk All-Americans that includes Maria Michta, Erin Bresnahan, Lorraine Horgan, Ariana Cagnina, Katie Michta, Brenda Genoino and many others.