Greenvale native and Roslyn High School alum Emily Lipari, a senior middle distance runner for Villanova University, was named the Women’s Track Athlete of the Year in the Mid-Atlantic Region in an announcement made by the United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association on Monday morning.
Lipari has now received the honor once during her career in all three seasons of the year, including winning the award for the 2013 cross country season and for the 2012-13 indoor track & field campaign.
The current outdoor season has been a dominant one for Lipari, who has won seven consecutive individual races dating back to her victory in the Mile at the indoor national championships. Lipari won the 800 meters at the Big East Championships last month and is the top-ranked national qualifier for the 1500 meters after setting a meet record in the event at the NCAA East Preliminary two weeks ago. She also delivered the Wildcats to a sweep of the distance relay events at the Penn Relays in a historic performance at the famed meet.
Lipari ran a collegiate best time of 4:14.64 in the national quarterfinal heats of the 1500 meters at Hodges Stadium in Jacksonville to clinch her second straight trip to the NCAA Championships outdoors. She was an automatic qualifier for the quarterfinals after winning her national first round heat in 4:20.01 two days earlier.
Villanova hosted the Big East Championships for the fourth time in the last seven years and Lipari won the individual title in the 800 meters while also anchoring the Wildcats to a conference championship in the 4×800 meter relay. Those races were part of an excellent meet for Villanova across the board, as the Wildcats set meet records for highest team score and largest margin of victory en route to winning their conference record ninth outdoor team title.
Lipari ran a personal best time of 2:05.66 in the final of the 800 meters at the Big East Championships and also won her preliminary heat in 2:08.26. In the 4×800 relay she helped Villanova register a winning time of 8:33.36 and hold off Georgetown by just 0.66 seconds at the finish line. This is the third straight year that the Wildcats have won the outdoor 4×800 relay.
In addition to her success at the conference and national levels, Lipari has also been the Women’s Athlete of the Meet for the relay events at the Penn Relays in each of the past two seasons. She turned in a performance for the ages at this year’s meet and became the third woman in school history to anchor three winning relays in a single year. Lipari is also the first Villanova woman ever to anchor five career winning relays at Penn. She helped the Wildcats defend their Championship of America titles in both the distance medley relay and the 4×800 meter relay. Villanova also won the 4×1500 meter relay for the first time in 14 years.
Lipari was slated to run in the national semifinals of the 1500 meters on Thursday evening at Hayward Field in Oregon.
