Foster's Girls Indoor Track Athlete of the Year: OR's Ciali excels in many events

DURHAM — As an energetic youngster, Lana Ciali would pretend she was a horse.

Just a few years later, she's become a thoroughbred on the track.

Ciali, a junior at Oyster River High School, won three events at the Class IMS indoor track meet this past February and added a surprising second in the dash. That all-around effort earned her the right to be called Foster's Daily Democrat's Girls Indoor Track Athlete of the Year.

Her signature event are the hurdles, which take a nearly equine combination of power, speed, timing and athletic grace. Going over a jump was something Ciali was brought up doing — but it used to be on a horse's back.

"Well, I did eventing through middle school," Ciali said, referring to the three-discipline horseback event that incorporates stadium jumping, cross country jumping and dressage. "Because I rode horses, I would jump around and I would pretend I was the horse and jump over the horse jumps. My parents told me to try out for track because of the hurdles."

A self-proclaimed farm girl, Lana Ciali (pronounced Lah-na See-Al-ee) rides horses only recreationally these days. Track is now the show ring where she displays a serious competitive passion and innate exuberance.

"It's just fun. I like my team we always have fun and also I just like the events. I like what I do during track," Ciali said. "I love the hurdles. Every time I run hurdles I have a lot of fun. That's the main thing. I did take it more serious this year but it was still a lot of fun though. I still goof around at practice. It's just less goofing around at practice."

At the Class IMS meet, held at Dartmouth, Ciali had little idle time. Her four events were being held simultaneously. She had to hustle between the sprints, the high jump area and the long jump pit. Nick Ricciardi, Oyster River's co-coach with Matt Embrey, said Ciali's greatest improvement at states might have been her ability to juggle the multiple events.

"She was very talented very early on and because of that she was put in situations as a freshman and sophomore that kids don't normally face until their senior year," Ricciardi said. "Her game sense has caught up with her talent which is exciting. Now she's worrying about running in her lane and not worrying about what's going on in the other seven lanes. Sometimes in the past it got the best of her but this year it didn't and we were really pumped about that."

Ciali remembers being "really, really nervous," that day but felt the nerves served as fuel.

She broke the IMS record in the 55 hurdles with a time of 8.48 seconds, just .02 off the state record. She established a new Oyster River record, breaking one of the marks held by Ali Poulin, one of the premier track athletes ever from the Seacoast who went on to compete in the 1996 U.S. Olympic Trials (400 hurdles).

Only defending champ and Class IMS record-holder Anna Cioffredi of Lebanon was able to beat Ciali in the sprint.

Those events were impressive, but Ciali's big breakthroughs came in her field events. She won both the high jump and the long jump. Her height of 5-feet even in the high jump represented a personal best and confirmed it might be an event to stick with.

"I just started the high jump this year and a week before the state meet I didn't want to do it. I thought I wouldn't place and that it would be a waste of time. I was shocked at the outcome," Ciali said.

In the long jump she broke her own PR by over a half-foot, winning with a leap of 17-6.25, to go with another 17-6 and a 17-footer.

"Her first jump was awful," Ricciardi said. "It was like 14-5. Then she settled in and did what she had to do. You could hear her yell the first time they said 17-6. She let it all out, so it was exciting."

After a disastrous New England meet, which included a false start and disqualification in the hurdles, Ciali bounced back to finish 15th in the hurdles at the NIKE Indoor Nationals in Landover, Md.

Now the focus is on the current outdoor season with aims toward competing in track and field at the college level. Ciali and her coaches both felt one reason for her improvement this winter was an increased dedication to offseason conditioning. For the first time, Ciali lifted weights regularly.

"My flat out sprint, that improved, so that was kind of a reflection of all the weight training I'd done," Ciali said.

And when she needs a little extra work, does she still bound over horse jumps?

"Ah, no. I use hurdles for my training now," she said.