Alexandra Samperi
Sport: Track and field
School: Hasbrouck Heights
Class: Senior. Age: 18
Accomplishment: Led Hasbrouck Heights to its second straight girls Group 1 state title, winning the long jump, taking fourth in the 200 and third in the 100 after a mishap knocked her out of the 100 hurdles final.
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Paul SchwartzWhen Lexy Samperi and the Hasbrouck Heights senior track and field girls talk, everybody listens.
In her four spring and three winter seasons, the Aviators have won seven sectional titles, seven league titles, three indoor Group 1 state relay titles and two spring Group state 1 titles. Their only losses in North Jersey were two Bergen County Relays and a Bergen group meet loss to Group 2 power Ramsey. The Aviators have never placed outside of the top four in group competition.
That’s why, after a one-point win over Ramsey at the early-season Aviator Relays at Heights’ own track, Samperi and her fellow seniors told coach Rob Brady that they needed to have a conversation with the entire team.
“We work out butts off in practice every day and the meets are really the easy part,” Samperi said. “When you get on the team as a freshman or sophomore, the seniors take you aside explain how important is to compete to win. If you don’t want to try and win, we don’t want you here.
“We thought after the Aviator Relays, that it was a good time to have that conversation.”
Four years earlier, Samperi came to Heights as an acclaimed soccer player. She played all four years with the Aviators’ soccer team. But Brady, who knew her from the Heights recreation program, and Lexy’s father both thought she should give track a try.
“When I started, there were girls like Amber Barrios (now at Lehigh) and Kristine Robertson to look up to,” Samperi said. “Then, as I started to do well and began to appreciate how people looked up to me, I knew I had to take on a leadership role.”
Success came quickly for Samperi, who won the Group 1 state long jump title as a freshman, repeated in 2022, and lost by less than three inches a year ago to Emerson’s Olyvia Burrell. That disappointment was easily overlooked as the Aviators handily won their first spring title.
“This year, I knew my team was banking on me to succeed in every meet, and I compete to make my team and coaches proud,” said Samperi, who won four events at sectionals and was the favorite in both the long jump and 100 hurdles at the state championships.
Friday’s long jump was an easy win, avenging the loss to Burrell, and she finished third in the 100, helping the Aviators take a 12-point lead into Saturday’s second day.
That’s when disaster nearly struck. Samperi was leading her trial heat midway through the race, but her hurdle moved a little at the same time her ankle buckled. The result was a near fall and a ninth-place finish, one shy of a spot in the finals.
That’s where her maturity and leadership shone through. There were 30 minutes until the final and her junior teammate, Ellie Shkreli, had qualified in third.
“I grabbed some ice for my ankle and told Ellie ‘no one wants this more than you,” Samperi said. “She wanted to prove something because she wasn’t happy with her 4-x-100 race. And I said ‘go win this race for all of us’.”
Shkreli ran in a personal best of 15.38, all but clinching the second straight title for the Aviators.
“Hasbrouck Heights is a smaller town and everyone is always together,” said Samperi, will compete for Marist next year. “Everyone’s there for the right reasons and our amazing coaches and our hearts give us that drive.”
With a lot of help from senior leadership.
