Eastport-South Manor's Maddie Laezza finishes second in Class B at state public school cross country championships
Maddie Laezza of Eastport-South Manor finishes the Class B New York State championship race in second place in Queensbury, N.Y., on Saturday. Credit: /Stephen Weaver
QUEENSBURY — Eastport-South Manor junior Maddie Laezza has spent the last two months as the surprise of the Long Island cross country scene. On Saturday, she was the surprise of the state.
Laezza placed second in 17 minutes, 15.2 seconds in the Class B 5-kilometer race at the public school state championships at Queensbury High School. Her performance ranked third in the merged results, qualifying her for the state Federation championships, scheduled for Nov. 22 at Bowdoin Park in Wappingers Falls.
Laezza's race furthered an already historic season of meteoric ascent, as she had never run cross country before this year — just indoor and outdoor track and field. She was a soccer player most of her life, and was still on ESM’s varsity team at the start of the fall season. In mid-September, she decided to leave the soccer team for cross country.
Now, she is the third-best cross country runner in the state.
“This year has been so crazy,” Laezza said. “Honestly, I keep surprising myself. I keep proving myself, and that’s what I’m out here to do. I just want to keep proving myself and show everyone that I’m here.”
Laezza joined her new team after its first dual meet. From there, she went unbeaten in all of her local races, winning all of her dual meets and finishing atop the merged results in both the Suffolk division championships and state qualifier.
It took the best runner in the state to beat Laezza, as John Jay-Cross River senior Sloan Wasserman — the top-ranked runner in New York — ran 17:06.2 to win Class B. That time was also best in the merge, followed by Shenendehowa senior Leyla Bhusri’s 17:11.2, which won Class A.
Wasserman remains the only girl in the state who has beaten Laezza. The two faced off on Oct. 18 at the Section I Coaches Invitational at Bowdoin Park, with Wasserman winning and Laezza second.
“I wanted to hang with her as long as I could,” Laezza said of Wasserman. “I just wanted to show her that I’m here and I’m ready.”
Now that the only two girls who outperformed Laezza on Saturday are graduating, her goal for next fall is very clear.
“I’m going to cherish this, but also learn from it and come back hungry next year,” Laezza said. “I’m going to keep this in my head so I can come back stronger. The goal is definitely just to win.”
North Shore senior Joanna Kenney was the top Nassau runner, ranking 18th in the merge with an 18:01.1. She placed fourth in Class B and was happy to help represent her county.
“It’s amazing to be the top [runner] from Nassau,” Kenney said. “I feel like we’re all a team together for Long Island. We may be competing against each other, but we’re all friends.”
In Class A, Northport scored 69 points to place second for the third straight year and place third overall in the merge to lead Long Island teams.
In the same race, Comsewogue junior Lexie Cole improved on her ninth place finish from last year, placing fourth in 17:32.9. Bay Shore senior Maggie McCormick followed her in fifth at 17:37.4. Those times ranked sixth and seventh in the merge.
“We were near each other the whole race, and we were just using energy from each other throughout the race,” McCormick said. “Knowing that two girls from Suffolk were top five and another team was top two, that influences everyone else. It boosts [morale] around Long Island as a whole.”
Mike Anderson is a high school sports reporter who has covered 12 sports so far at Newsday. He was the sports editor of Stony Brook University's campus newspaper for two years.
