Athlete of the Week: Poway High’s Calegari bounces back to reach state
By Michael Bower
Alex Calegari had heard of and was prepared to face the sophomore slump this season. But that doesn’t mean the Poway High girls cross country runner did not get disappointed with the way things were going earlier this year.
Her times were slower than expected and her confidence took a hit after she placed 18th at the Palomar League championships. Just a year earlier, as a freshman, Calegari placed sixth at the league finals.
“It was very tough,” Calegari admitted. “Sometimes you just want to give up, but if you want to improve you just have to keep going, so that is what I did. I realized that I needed to push through it if I wanted to make state.”
Just a week after the devastating finish at the Palomar League championships, which she called the low of the season, Calegari ran her heart out at Saturday’s San Diego Section Division II championships.
Her 11th-place finish in 17-minutes, 24-seconds on the 2.75-mile course at Balboa Park’s Morley Field was good enough for 11th place and a qualifying spot into Saturday’s state meet at Woodwark Park in Fresno.
Calegari ran the same section championship race in 16:48 last year and finished in eighth place, but this was an even more gratifying finish considering all the mental hurdles she cleared after a rough regular season to advance to the state championships.
“The turning point was after league finals,” she said. “I called my coach (Bruce Jackson) and he told me it was just a mental thing so I just tried to be stronger mentally during the race and we had figured out a race strategy so I felt more confident.”
Calegari will bring that confidence into the state championships on Saturday. She had an outstanding showing last season at the event, finishing in 34th place in 18:39.
“I don’t want to put too much pressure on myself because I had a slower time than last year at the section championships and I don’t want to be disappointed if it doesn’t go well,” Calegari said. “But, obviously, I would like to set a personal-record there.”
Calegari was the lone runner to qualify from Poway. She had the entire team by her side for the state meet last season, so it will be different being on her own this year.
“I think it will be hard to step on the starting line by myself,” she said, “but my coach is letting me bring some people from the team to Fresno. It will be nice to have some of them there with me.”