Emily Lipari’s track career at Roslyn High School was legendary. She was four-time national champion in the Mile, the 2007 and 2008 New York Athlete of the Year in cross country, and to top if off, the subject of a cover story in ESPN magazine. Needless to say, Lipari graduated from high school as a local celebrity, with loud cheers and standing ovations greeting her many accomplishments.
Now Lipari has completed an equally successful career at Villanova University, home to one of the great track and field programs in America.
Lipari capped off her stellar four-year run at that university by being named both Villanova’s Female Senior Student-Athlete of the Year and most impressive of all, a first team All-American as judged by the United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA).
Lipari received her student-athlete award at a reception held for graduating seniors. According to university officials, the Male and Female Senior Student-Athlete of the Year awards are given to a senior “who has excelled in both athletics and academics in addition to making a positive impact through community service.” The winner must have a high grade-point average in addition to being a significant contributor to his/her team.
Upon bestowing the award to Lipari, the official citation read:
“Since the very beginning of her freshman year Emily Lipari has been one of the top performers for the women’s track & field team. She has bookended her career with national championships as both a freshman and a senior while racking up nine All-America honors, 13 Big East titles and six Penn Relays Championship of America titles. Lipari has excelled on the track while simultaneously keeping up with a rigorous and multi-faceted degree program as a Psychology major and Biology minor in the school of Liberal Arts. She was named to the Big East All-Academic Team her freshman year.”
The capstone to her brilliant career at Villanova is the All-American honors.
In receiving this lofty title, Lipari was praised by university officials for concluding a “sensational academic year.” Her accomplishments included being the Big East champion in the 800 meters, while anchoring Villanova to a conference title in the 4×800 meter relay. That helped Villanova win its first conference track title in 14 years.
At the Penn relays, Lipari anchored no less than three winning relay squads. For the second consecutive year, she was named Women’s Athlete of the Meet for the relay events. In addition to All-American honors, Lipari was named as the Mid-Atlantic Region Athlete of the Year by that same coaching association.
Lipari’s achievements at Villanova are too numerous to mention, but the first team honors represented a leap forward from her junior year when she was named as a second-team All-American in the 1500 meters. In all, Lipari received six All-American honors in her career at Villanova. While she excelled as both a Miler and in Cross Country events, Lipari’s great contribution came as the anchor of numerous winning relay teams, especially at the prestigious Penn Relays, where Villanova squads won title after title during Lipari’s career.
Indeed, in a 2013 interview with Running Times, Lipari admitted that she enjoyed running anchor on the relays,
“When running relays I’m not much of a setter-upper, I’m more of a kicker so I kind of just sit and finish really well,” Lipari said. “So running anchor to me is really fun because you watch your teammates before you run really well and it kind of gets you fired up to do well and gives you this do-or-die feeling. When they’re running so well it makes you want to run well and it makes for really good results.”
There is no indication that Lipari intends to retire from running, so the future may bring many more good results for Roslyn’s track and field phenomenon.
