North Shore's Diana Vizza places fourth in 5k Nike Cross NY Regional Championship
Diana Vizza of North Shore runs during the Nike national qualifying meet at Bowdoin Park in Wappingers Falls on Saturday, Nov. 28, 2015. Credit: Errol Anderson
WAPPINGERS FALLS, N.Y. -- Diana Vizza's magical cross country season just won't end, and she's perfectly fine with that. The North Shore senior, two weeks after winning the New York State Class B Public School Championship and one week after a top-10 finish at the highly competitive New York State Federation Meet, continued to gather accolades Saturday afternoon at Bowdoin Park.
Vizza placed fourth in the 5-kilometer Nike Cross New York Regional Championship, finishing in 18 minutes, 11.5 seconds. Kaitlyn Neal of Fayetteville-Manlius won the race in 17:37.8. With her finish, Vizza qualified for the Nike Cross National Meet, scheduled for Saturday at the Glendoveer Golf Course in Portland, Oregon.
"It's all pretty surreal and really awesome," Vizza said, who is committed to attend Dartmouth.
It will be the second consecutive season Vizza has run a 5K against national competition. She ran 17:17.25 on the track at New Balance Outdoor Nationals in North Carolina in June.
"That gave me a taste of running smart when you get to a whole new level of fields," Vizza said. "New York is a great place to run and America is an even better place to run. I'm really excited for Portland."
Vizza said she wasn't satisfied with the 18:26.4 she ran on the Bowdoin Park course last week, knowing she needed to run with more confidence in order to book her plane ticket westward.
"My strategy was better," she said. "I went out there in the top five and I never left it."
Vizza ran the first half of the race in 9:03 and the second half in 9:09.
"The past week or two, I've really been working on my speed," Vizza said. "I knew I had to focus on strength in the beginning and the middle, speed at the end, and really attack the second half."
Sachem East's Alexandra DeCicco finished eighth in 18:23.2. Sachem East finished fourth in the team competition with 146 points. Fayetteville-Manlius won with 38 points.
On the boys side, Sachem North's Jonathan Lauer was the highest Long Island finisher, placing 13th in 16:18.3. St. Anthony's placed fourth in the team competition with 146 points, ending their quest at two consecutive national meet berths. Liverpool won with 77 points.
