The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
State runner sets national record in her first attempt
Sydney Masciarelli won the 2018 Foot Locker national high school crosscountry championship.
She captured the 5,000meter and two-mile races at the 2019 New Balance Nationals Outdoor in 2019.
The recent graduate of Marianapolis Prep in Thompson has Division I college basketball talent.
Last summer, she set a world record for dribbling a basketball a mile in 5:08.57. (That would have placed ninth in the 2021 CIAC girls 1,600 State Open race, nine meters shorter than a mile.) And she is Pele’s cousin. So at first blush it shouldn’t be shocking that Masciarelli, who is headed to the University of North Carolina, broke the national high school record in the 2,000-meter steeplechase on June 19.
Here’s the thing. It was the first time Masciarelli ran the event. She had no idea what the national record was before breaking it by almost four seconds in the New York State Showcase in Accord with a 6:25:35.
She had never even cleared a steeplechase barrier until three days before.
“All I’d done was some hurdles used for the 300,” Masciarelli said.
Competing in the NEPSAC with her twin Sal in the northeastern corner of Connecticut, growing up across the border in Northbridge, Mass., Masciarelli is well known to distance aficionados and in central Massachusetts.
Yet compared to Conard’s Gavin Sherry, Danbury’s Alanna Smith, and the Moore family of Hillhouse, it seemed the only time her name surfaced in a significant way in Connecticut was when she was named state Gatorade Girls Player of the Year in track and cross country a total of four times.
With no track her junior spring and sports curtailed at Marianapolis because of COVID this past year, the 5-foot-11 Masciarelli essentially ran unattached
this spring. She ran a 4:26 1,500, a 4:46 mile, 9:24.09 in the 3,000 and 10:04.54 in the two mile.
Encouraged by Rio Olympic bronze medalist Emma Coburn, Masciarelli has had her eye on the steeplechase for a few years.
“When the pandemic hit, everything closed down, that was the end of that,” Sydney’s mom, Loanny, said. “When they started opening up things, they wouldn’t allow anyone on campus (with steeplechase barriers) unless you went there. Plus, we couldn’t find a meet anywhere.”
Finally, they found one, but it was the same day as the Marianapolis graduation. That was a no-go. Her coach found another one in New York.
“A few days before the meet, I said, ‘I know you’re doing this for fun, but I’d really like you to actually jump over a steeple barrier first. Just for the feel of it.’ A friend of mine’s son told us about New Britain.”
The next day they got in the car, mom located the address on her phone, drove two hours and wouldn’t you know it? This was the second day of the CIAC decathlon, heptathlon, hammer, steeplechase meet at Willow Brook Park.
“There were some jumping events going on and they said the steeplechase was later,” Sydney said.
“I’m like, ‘I’m going to go talk to the meet directors and maybe they’ll take pity on us. Just give us five minutes.’ ” Loanny said. “I met this really sweet guy who used to coach at CCSU for many years and had retired (George Kawecki). I told him how my son Sal is going to run there this year.
“He said if we want to jump over the water pit, we can have her do it. I told Sydney to go get her spikes. She looked at me. She forgot to bring them. He’s like you can’t go over the water barrier without spikes. You could get hurt.”
So they put one of the barriers on the turf. Sydney practiced going over the barrier 3-4 times. Three days later and one day after her 18th birthday, Masciarelli broke the record set by her soon-to-be UNC teammate Sarah Trainor.
“We’re sitting there quietly and all of a sudden the announcer goes, ‘She’s going for the national record,’ ” Loanny said. “Of course, her form was terrible. She didn’t know what she was doing. She did it on athleticism.”
“It was a lot of fun,” Sydney said. “The water jump was a lot higher than I thought. I also didn’t know the water is deeper closer to the barrier. Playing basketball, helped me a lot with all the jumping. It’s a good combination. It’s a lot harder than a regular mile or two mile. By the third lap you’re really tired and lactic, but it’s more fun than just running in circles.”
The 6:25:34 was also the American U-20 record and 15th ranking in the world this year. Keep in mind, the world’s elite steeplechasers usually run 3,000 meters. Still, Masciarelli is fourth in U.S. history in the 2,000. She went on to win the outdoor national steeplechase in Eugene, Oregon in 6:36.27 on July 3.
“Obviously, I wanted to beat my time, but it was really hot and I went out way too fast,” Masciarelli said. “I’m glad I went. It was fun.”
And 71⁄2 seconds faster than anyone else. Masciarelli, scheduled to be among Faces In The Crowd in an upcoming Sports Illustrated, will continue to explore various distances, but the steeplechase may well be her calling.
“Emma Coburn was a huge influence on her at Foot Locker,” Loanny said. “Really sweet with her, telling (us) we need the next set of steeplers and and you look like you’d do really well in it.”
This is one athletic, aerobic family. Loanny’s husband Stephen played football at American International College. Sydney’s older sister Sophia runs at Hofstra. My son played basketball at Lasell University with Sydney’s older brother Stefan, an outstanding scoring guard who never seemed to tire.
“Growing up, any time her brother or sister would do something, Sydney tried to match it,” Loanny said. “Like soccer, her sister was doing it. She started dribbling with her foot and before you knew it, she was doing all these tricks. That part I understand, it’s in your blood.”
Pele is a first cousin of Loanny’s father.
“My father’s dream was to have boys and he had two girls,” Loanny said. “He tried to make us soccer players and neither one of us wanted anything to do with it.”
Sydney scored 21 goals in soccer her freshman year at Marianapolis. She switched to cross country the next fall as a sophomore. She won the national meet. Whoa.
Northern Arizona, Stanford, Duke, Notre Dame,
Wisconsin, Colorado all wanted her. She carried a 3.43 GPA. The Ivy Leagues, too. She picked Chapel Hill, looking at majoring in exercise and sports science.
“I got to go down last summer with my family to see the North Carolina campus and that was a big reason,” she said. “The coaching staff was great.
“I’m excited and a little nervous about being so far away from home.”
Sal and Sophia will accompany mom and dad Friday in moving Sydney into college. This will be the first time separated from her CCSU-bound twin for any length of time.
“It’s going to be tough,” Sydney said. “But it will be good for us to experience different things.”
“It’s going to be really tough,” Loanny said, “but we’ve been prepping her for a little while now. They always spent a lot of time together, but it has been extra recently, watching movies and things. It has fun to watch.”
Although COVID erased her senior basketball season, Masciarelli reached 1,000 career points in a junior year when she averaged 20 points, seven assists, eight rebounds and four steals. She was approached by colleges, in fact, she has been invited by the North Carolina coaching staff to attend some open runs.
“I love basketball, but I kind of want to focus on running,” Sydney said.
If coach Courtney Banghart or new men’s coach Hubert Davis really wants to challenge their players, they should line them against Masciarelli dribbling the basketball for a mile. Last summer, she was tagged on social media about a record of 5:15 by Fast Women, a newsletter focusing on women’s running. Masciarelli went out a few days later to the Blackstone Valley Technical track and broke the record by nearly seven seconds.
“My legs were fine, my arms were really tired and sore,” Sydney said.
Before the UNC cross country season, the Tokyo Olympics had her attention the past weeks. America’s 1-2 finish in the women’s 400 hurdles thrilled her. Coburn falling and being disqualified as U.S. teammate Courtney Frerichs won the silver medal shaped the steeplechase.
“That’s where I want to be one day,” Masciarelli said. “I’ll do everything to prepare myself.”