Heigis flies tod her fourth SCIL Festival win

Pope John senior, Lara Heigis, was poetry in motion on Saturday as she captured her fourth straight SCIL Festival title, running 17:55:32 and dominating the field. Heigis was in the lead for the entire race, then, coming down the final stretch, treated the crowd to and astounding kick, somehow adding speed and strength to her already tremendous race and crescendoing faster and faster into the finish. “I felt really good,” Heigis said, “I saw the finish and the clock and just was able to pick it up. I also wanted to break my own record.” This was Heigis’ fastest time at the circuitous Fairgrounds course and the first time she’s run under 18 minutes there. She ran fluidly throughout the race, undaunted by the swirling surround sound wind. This sets up Heigis, who is being courted by several ivy league colleges, for a strong rest of the season. In the next few weeks, she’ll run Regionals, States and The Meet of Champions. “This is a good indicator for the upcoming championship races,” she said. Heigis led the Lions to an anticipated victory, but second place wasn’t so clearly cut. Thanks to an incredible final kick by Shannon James, who sprinted her heart out to separate two Wallkill Valley runners, High Point beat out the Rangers by one point for second place. High Point’s Stacey Lepes, Danielle Czohla and Samantha Brummell all finished in the top-10 and under 20 minutes. Deemed “Amazing Aimee” by her coach, Sabrina Lucas, Wallkill Valley’s Aimee Chegwidden had a strong SCIL finale, finishing second in 18:25:21. “She was phenomenal,” Lucas said.