All-American Emily Lipari Commits to Villanova

All-American Lipari chooses Villanova

By Christopher Hunt / November 9, 2009

Sometimes in life you really can get anything you want. And sometimes when you can have anything and you find that you like everything, it becomes hard to settle on just one thing ? or one school. Roslyn’s Emily Lipari chose Villanova. The senior, ranked seventh in the Milesplit National poll, chose Nova last week over Oregon, Providence and Georgetown.

“Each visit I went on, I really liked and it was great to be given those opportunities,” Lipari said. “In the end, I wanted to go somewhere that was far enough that I would feel like I have that independence but close enough that I could come home.”Lipari, decided two weeks ago, a week after she visited Oregon which finished second at the NCAA Cross Country Championships last year. Villanova though, is currently ranked second in the country according to the USTFCCA Women’s Division I poll.

“Every time I went on a visit I was like, ‘Oh my God, I like this place,’ or ‘this place is awesome,’” she said. “But Villanova always stayed in the back of my mind. There was just something about Villanova.” Lipari couldn’t say much about what separated one school from another. Mostly, she decided according to where she simply felt most comfortable, which turned out to be in Pennsylvania. “It’s kind of all just by feel,” she said. “You kind of go there and you can ask all the questions you want and get all the answers you want but in the end you’re just going to go where you feel comfortable.“The biggest thing for me is, I just feel like I’m ready to leave high school. Now that committed to a college you just feel like you have that independence. I’ve done high school training and I’ve had some of the best high school coaches. I’m ready to see what’s out there for me in college.”

Lipari has been among the top distance runners in the country for the past two years. She finished 11th at the Foot Lockers Nationals last year and won state titles in the 1,500 and 3,000 outdoors the past two years. Lipari sounded horse over the phone Monday night and had 101-degree fever before the Nassau County championships two weeks ago. She said she plans to the run in the state championships Saturday in Plattsburgh, where she’ll be the favor in the Class A race. But even more than her excitement about running in college next year, she’ll be able to experience something at practice she that she never has before.“I’ll actually get to run with girls,” she said. “It’s going to be so different.”