DURHAM >> Jessica Drop, Samantha Drop, Allie Alsup and Megan Decker arrived at the New Balance Track and Field Center at The Armory in New York City with the same hopes and All-American dreams that all the competitors harbored at this year’s National Championship Indoor meet.
“It was in the back of our minds that we could get All-American because we looked at the results from last year and our times could definitely get us there,” Jessica Drop said.
Reality had set in. The girls from Durham were going to have to run the fastest times of their lives. Only the top six teams are awarded All-America honors.
The girls watched Jessica Drop run, counted other runners, and watched the leaderboard. Most of all, they wondered. When the race was over there was a short, excruciating wait for the results.
Then. In a flash. 11:55.36. Sixth place. Pandemonium.
Jessica Drop, Samantha Drop, Allie Alsup and Megan Decker became the first Coginchaug track and field athletes to earn All-American honors.
Two days later, Jessica Drop capped the Blue Devils glorious weekend with an All-American performance in the one-mile championship.
This year’s National Indoor meet took place March 11-13. And McShane quickly noticed the fast times that were showing up on the scoreboard.
Sam Drop, a senior who is headed to the University of Georgia, got the Blue Devils weekend off to a great start on Friday morning. Drop placed 22nd in the Girls 2-mile Emerging Elite race while breaking the school record with a time of 11:05.33.
Decker ran the second leg (400). The junior, who has emerged as one of the top sprinters in the Shoreline, was also out of her comfort zone.
Alsup, a junior who is one of the state’s top middle distance runners, did her job in the third leg (800).
All eyes were now on Jessica Drop for the final 1600 meters.
The Blue Devils’ sixth-place time (11:55.36) outdistanced seventh place Legacy TC (New York), which finished in 11:57.68.
North Rockland High School (Thiells, N.Y.) won the Distance Medley with a meet record time of 11:34.85.
On Saturday, Coginchaug’s Sprint Medley team of seniors Cassandra Kovacs, Katherine D’Orvilliers, Decker, and Alsup placed 23rd in 4:17.10.
And on Sunday, Drop made more track history.
Drop, who is also going to run track for the University of Georgia next season, faced some of the fastest milers in the country in the Girls 1-Mile Run championship.
Earlier in the season, Drop ran a personal best mile (4:50.06) at the Millrose Games.
“I knew she was going to have to run under 4:47 on Sunday,” McShane said.
Drop ran an amazing 4:46.57, a fifth-place finish that earned the Blue Devils senior more All-American honors.
Drop ran a 2:23 for the first 800 meters.
“I went out fast and I was like, ‘Oh, no…it’s going to be a bad last 800,” Drop said.
Drop, however, ran almost the same split. Drop finished just behind Shona McCullough (Ontario, Canada), whose fourth-place time was 4:46.18. Madison Boreman (Round Rock, Texas) placed sixth in 4:47.39.
Katie Rainsberger, of Colorado’s U.S. Air Force Academy prep team, won the event with a meet record time of 4:36.61.
Drop’s time was just a few ticks off the all-time Connecticut indoor track record (4:45.09) set by Greenwich’s Ceci Hopp in 1981.