After breaking a pair of running records at Miller Middle School this year, Lacy May Grogan Ruggiero has been searching for some tough competition to push her.
She attended The Liberty School, but competed for Miller and as an eighth grader she ran the 800-meters in 2 minutes and 29 seconds, breaking Miller’s previous school record by one second. She also set new a school record in the 1,600: 5:28.
During the middle school season, she often left her competition in the dust and ran in front all by herself. Her dad, Victor Ruggiero, said she was lucky that in a few meets they ran the boys and girls together so she had some competition.
“Her mile times were beating most of the mile times at the high school level,” Victor said. “We wanted her to experience running with runners behind and in front of her.”
Lacy, and her teammate Zia Fadil, 12, have been traveling to find more fast runners to compete against this summer. Both did well enough at the Colorado state championships in Aurora and at the regional championships in Albuquerque this summer to qualify for the USA Track and Field Outdoor Track Junior National meet. The meet is currently taking place this week at Hayward Field on the campus of the University of Oregon in Eugene.
Fadil was a sixth grader last year and her dad, Michael Fadil, is Miller’s coach. “He was super instrumental in making (nationals) happen for Lacy,” Victor said. “I think for Lacy, the most important thing was seeing what else is out there.”
At the national meet, Lacy has certainly found some tough competition, and she ran her fastest races ever in both the 800 and 1,500 this week in Eugene.
Lacy turned 15 in April so she’s running against mostly high school athletes in the girls 15-16 division.
Lacy started the national meet by competing in the 800 on Wednesday, and clocked a personal record of 2:28.36. The result helped her place 37th out 73 runners.
In the 1,500 on Thursday, she did even better. Lacy ran a 5:10 at the Colorado state meet and Victor said her goal was to clock a 5:04. Lacy, however, ran faster than she hoped, clocking a personal record of 5:02.61. She was seeded sixth in her heat and was in seventh place heading into the final lap, but managed to pass a few runners and work her way up to a third-place finish in her heat of 16 runners.
Lacy’s 1,500 time was the 13th best at the national meet, but only the top-12 advanced to the finals so she just missed the cut. The No. 12 runner ran a 4:59.82 in prelims.
“I know she’s probably a little sad, but she did amazing,” Victor said. “I’m so stoked for her … it’s not like we had her pound all summer long.”
Lacy also mountain bikes, alpine skis and Nordic skis. At the Vail GoPro Games this summer, she finished third in the cross-country mountain bike race in the sport division in her age group.
Next year, she’ll attend Animas High School and run for Durango High School.
Zia will compete in two events at nationals, the 3,000 and 1,500. Those races will take place on Saturday and Sunday. There are no prelims for her age group.
This summer, Zia has posted some fast times. She clocked a 2:33 in the 800, a 5:03 and 5:10 in the 1,500 and also a 10:57 in the 3,000.
