Athlete of the Week: Emma emerges for Sage Hill
Emma Dickerson does a lot of running in soccer, especially because she plays the midfield position.
The Sage Hill School freshman must help out both the forwards and the defenders for her club soccer team, South Slammers FC.
This led to her parents encouraging her to try cross-country. There was precedent in the family. Emma’s her older brother Dylan, a sophomore at Sage Hill, ran cross country last year. And her much older sister, Alexa, used to run ultramarathons.
But Emma wasn’t so sure that cross country was for her.
“At first I was kind of iffy about it,” she said. “I was like, ‘Who would want to spend their time running every day?’ But the idea kind of grew on me. I did it over the summer just to see what I thought of it, and I liked the summer running, so I decided to continue into the school year.”
Nobody quite knew what to expect. Sage Hill Coach Nate Miller has been doing this a long time and he saw that Dickerson had talent, but he said she also had never even run in a 5K before.
Miller and the members of the Lightning team can be glad that Dickerson decided to try a new sport. The 5-foot-2 girl with braces-covered teeth has been turning heads this season for Sage Hill.
She quickly became Sage Hill’s top female runner. Dickerson, the Daily Pilot Athlete of the Week, leads the strongest Lightning team in years into the CIF Southern Section championship meet Saturday at Mt. San Antonio College.
Dickerson, who finished seventh individually last week at the Division 5 preliminaries at the new Riverside course, is a key reason why Sage Hill appears poised to make the CIF State Championships as a team for the first time since 2008. The Lightning run at Mt. San Antonio College at 9:05 a.m., exactly an hour before the Sage Hill boys compete.
The Sage girls come into Saturday’s meet ranked No. 4 in CIF Southern Section Division 5. The top seven teams at Saturday’s meet will advance to state.
“In 2006 we were fourth, and that’s our best-ever finish,” Miller said. “I really believe we can match or improve that finish.”
A leader on that team was Cait Williamson (class of 2009), who Miller said owns the school’s all-time best girls’ time in a three-mile race at 18:23. Dickerson is already second on that list, after running an 18:53 at the Orange County Championships on Oct. 16 at Irvine Regional Park. She matched that time last week at CIF preliminaries.
In between she finished second individually at the Academy League finals, just two seconds behind the champion from Crean Lutheran, senior Mandy Reyes. Sage also finished a close second to Crean Lutheran as a team.
“She’s got a great athletic background,” Miller said of Dickerson, who plans to play for the Sage Hill girls’ soccer team this winter. “But her mind-set is one of the best I’ve seen, just in terms of being really determined and competitive and willing to push herself. Some girls either have that or don’t, and she definitely has that. It’s something she has very naturally, just the ability to go to her limits, and that’s enabled her to have a lot of success.”
She had what Miller called a breakout performance earlier this season at the Mt. SAC Invitational, when she finished third in the Division 5 girls’ sweepstakes race in 19 minutes flat. That’s a good time on a challenging course, and it gives Dickerson confidence headed into Saturday’s race at the same venue.
“I felt like I ran it really well,” Dickerson said of the Mt. SAC Invitational race on Oct. 23. “I think I made my moves at the right places. I ran a smart race, I guess you could say. I enjoyed the course, so I’m excited to see how this Saturday is going to be ... I’m excited. I like the course, and I’m hoping to do well and have my team do well.”
The team captains for Sage Hill are junior Julia Lowe, senior Erika Garcia and senior Kurisa Suhr, who has been injured most of the season. Lowe is the team’s top returning runner, after she placed 23rd in Division 5 last year at the CIF State Championships. Other top runners for the Lightning include two other freshmen, Maya Jaffe and Olivia Lowe.
But Dickerson has become a leader for the Lightning as well. Now she wants to help the whole team get to Fresno next weekend. When Miller said that the team has by far exceeded his expectations, Dickerson is a big part of the reason why.
And she says the right things about her sudden success, which she admits has surprised even herself.
“It’s pretty cool, but I also have to keep with it,” Dickerson said. “I can’t really fall from it. I’ve got to keep pushing myself every race, try to strive to do better.”
She said she wants to go under 18:30 this season, although she knows it will be tough with two races at most left on challenging courses. However, it is that drive, that will that has Miller excited for what Dickerson might able to accomplish in the future as well.
“I really didn’t meet her at all until our summer running program,” Miller said. “I think for her, it was just a way for her to get involved with the school. I think one of the advantages of Sage is you can do a lot of different activities. She took to it right away. You could tell pretty early on that she was going to be good, but it kind of reached another level when she started doing races.”
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Emma Dickerson
Born: Aug. 29, 2001
Hometown: Rancho Santa Margarita
Height: 5-foot-2
Sport: Cross country
Year: Freshman
Coach: Nate Miller
Favorite food: Fruit
Favorite movie: “Blended”
Favorite athletic moment: Finishing her first cross country race this year at the Woodbridge Invitational.
Week in review: Dickerson finished seventh individually at the CIF Southern Section Division 5 preliminaries at Riverside City course on Nov. 14, helping the Lightning advance to the finals.