A year ago at states, she was racing a teammate. This year, she was racing a rival. For Ally Rome, her last two state meets featured much different competitors, but the result--a state championship--stayed the same.
At about two and a half miles, Dallas's Rome was able to open up a gap on Scranton Prep's Erin Feeney and she held the lead through the line. Back-to-back state championships. To boot, the AA girls champ bettered her time on the Hershey course by 14 seconds.
"It was definitely a tough race," Rome said. "Erin gave me a good fight. We went out pretty hard and then I felt the hills could have been better, but the end I felt better about."
The road to title number two was certainly different for Rome. A year ago, she had the training and racing company of the since-graduated Lindsay Oremas, who took second to Rome a year ago. But Rome has still found a friend in fellow District 2 competitor, Feeney.
"Last year, I am running with a girl I trained with everyday," Rome said of Oremus. "It's a different feel, but it's good either way to have someone there pushing you and especially someone as nice as Erin."
For Feeney, just toeing the line at states this year was nothing short of miraculous. Taking second is just the icing on the cake for the senior.
"A little over a month ago, I got mono and so I was out for three weeks not running at all and I thought my season was over," Feeney said.
But Feeney didn't want her senior year of cross country to end that way. She was cleared by doctors to run just three days before the District 2 meet. She went for a two mile run and decided she felt good enough to "tempo" districts. That tempo turned into a second place performance behind Rome.
"I thought I'd just give states a try since it's my senior year. I'm not disappointed at all not winning because I'm just happy to be running," Feeney said.
Feeney ran 55 seconds faster than she did a year ago at Hershey. She was 17th. This year, she was second. Not bad for someone who didn't even expect to run. Feeney had nothing but good things to say about her District 2 counterpart and two-time state champion, Rome.
"She's always a great competitor to run against," Feeney said. "I've certainly raced her a couple of times and she always keeps it interesting. She's a great person to pace off and I'm really happy she got to repeat here."