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Dallas cross country standout Mitchell Rome has committed to the Naval Academy where he will continue his distance running career on the NCAA Division I level.
The District 2 Class 2A champion and the Wyoming Valley Conference’s top finisher at the state championships, Rome announced his decision Monday night on Instagram.
Rome will become the fourth member of his family to run on the Division I level, following his mother Amy (Penn State) and sisters Regan (William & Mary, Providence) and Ally (Princeton).
As a distance runner, Mitchell Rome is expected to compete in all three sports seasons – cross country in the fall, indoor track and field in the winter and outdoor track and field in the spring.
Rome had been in contact with some traditional colleges during the recruiting process, but had been focusing his attention on two military academies, Army at West Point and Navy in Annapolis, Md.
After receiving his acceptance from Navy Jan. 10, Rome thought it over into the next week and decided to go ahead with his formal commitment to the academy.
“Last year, when I started talking to coaches from the academies, I applied to go to their summer leadership seminars,” said Rome, who traces his interest in the military back to the beginning of high school. “ … After I went to those right at the end of my junior school year in June, I started getting really serious about the academies and wanting to go there.”
Rome was one of the scoring runners on two state team championships as a freshman and sophomore at Dallas and was an individual medalist each of the past two seasons, leading all WVC runners in each case. He finished fourth in the state as a senior.
During indoor track this winter, Rome ranks seventh in the state in the 3,000 meters. He expects to compete again Sunday at Susquehanna University.
Rome was fourth in District 2 Class 3A in the 3,200-meter run as a junior.
On the college level, he expects to venture into longer distances. The standard collegiate distance for cross country races is 8K, instead of the high school 5K (3.1 miles). Rome thinks 5,000- and 10,000-meter runs could become his events in track.
Regan Rome earned All-America honors running the longer distances in college.