Aurora Greenmen sophomore sprinter Isabella Cicero is never satisfied after a race unless she ends it with almost little energy remaining. Cicero found that feeling when she took sixth place in the 400-meter dash with a time of 57.59 seconds at the Ohio High School Athletic Association Division I state meet last Saturday at the University of Dayton’s Welcome Stadium.
“It is really cool and really unbelievable,” Cicero said. “I did not necessarily come into the season thinking it would happen but hoped it would.”
After a strong freshman season with the Aurora girls’ track & field team, the Greenmen sophomore said she set some higher goals for herself for this season and met those goals by earning her first career state berth.
Cicero competed in the 100-meter and 200-meter dash and was also a member of the 4×400 relay team. She was a regional qualifier in all four events but only snagged a state berth in the 400-meter dash but as luck would have it, the 400-meter dash was her strongest event.
On Friday, Cicero earned an automatic bid to the 400-meter dash finals when she finished as the runner-up in the third heat with a time of 56.91 seconds. She used a late kick in the final 200 meters to advance.
“At the 200-meter mark I had to start moving because I really wanted to make it to the finals and I knew if I did not start moving then, my chance would be gone,” Cicero noted.
According to Cicero, her kick at the 200-meter mark is her go-to move because if she waits any longer, she does not feel like she ran a race to her fullest extent.
On Saturday, Cicero applied the same tactic in the finals, kicking at approximately the 200-meter mark. All of her competitors also kicked at the same time, and some of their kicks were a little faster than Cicero’s.
“Isabella is a kicker and waits and waits,” said Coach Greg Cicero. “The second half of her race on Saturday was much better than the first half but she will learn.”
Cicero continued running hard down the stretch and picked off a few runners to rally for sixth place, putting the finishing touches on a breakthrough sophomore campaign. Cicero said that considering everything that the Aurora girls’ track team achieved this year with a large group of underclassmen, it makes the next few years all that more exciting.
“This season was unbelievable,” she said. “Everybody had so much fun and I cannot wait for next season well because we will be a little bit older and more experienced so it should be a good season.”
Although the 400-meter dash is Cicero’s strongest event, she added that she is also striving to return to the state meet as a state qualifier in a few other events. She said it would be exciting to return to the state level in a few more events other than the 400-meter dash.
By being the lone returning Division I state qualifier this season, the second-year coach noted that he expects her to carry a louder voice with her teammates in her next two years.
“I think she will be a lot more vocal with other girls,” he said. “I think her goal is to move up that podium so she will be ready.”
Before Cicero can think about returning to the OHSAA Division I state meet, she still has a cross-country season to worry about in the fall. Although she has never been a state qualifier in cross-country, she said it would be nice to carry some of the momentum from track over to cross-country but acknowledged that it would take a lot of work.
“I have done it the past few years and it really helps me build on my strength for the indoor season,” she said. “I think I have to develop more strength and get a bigger mindset in order to that in cross-country.”
As good as Cicero’s track season was, it was just one of several highlights in an exciting year for the Aurora girls’ track program, which was propelled by several underclassmen including Cicero.
In addition to enjoying a memorable sophomore season, Cicero said that it has been an added bonus to go through this with her father as her head track coach, who became the head coach when she entered high school.
“It was really exciting for us to start in the same year because we both learned how Aurora track operates and we were able to navigate our way through it,” she said.
