Erika Cheever, forever known to Revere High School sports fans as the rising freshman star on the 2016-17 NEC champion girls basketball team that won its first 18 games of the season and ascended to the No. 1 ranking in Massachusetts under head coach Lianne O’Hara, will compete in the Berlin Marathon this Sunday in Germany.
“I started training for marathons about a year ago,” said Erika. “This will be my fourth marathon. I’m chasing the seven world majors. After I complete Berlin, I will have finished four out of the seven majors. I’ve done the Chicago, New York, and London Marathons. My best time was in Chicago: 3 hours, 39 minutes, and 13 seconds.”
Erika said she was inspired to run marathons by her job as a pediatric hospice nurse at Care Dimensions.
“Through my job, I became knowledgeable about being able to run marathons and raise funds for organizations,” said Erika, who will be competing for the Great Lakes Adaptive Sports Association. “My fundraising has assisted some of my patients.”
Memories of an historic season
.During that memorable high school basketball season, Cheever drained two clutch free throws with one second left to help Revere beat Lynn Classical and maintain its winning streak.
“That year was really special,” said Erika. “I was the sixth man on that team, and we had some great players like Valentina Pepic, Meaghan Gotham, Tatiana Iacoviello, Pamela Gonzalez, and Emily DiGiulio.”
Cheever would score 964 points in her superb career despite missing half of her final season due to a pulmonary embolism.
She played one year of college basketball season at Salem State before sustaining a career-ending broken knee injury and a concussion.
“That’s when I decided that I wanted to attend nursing school, so I hung up my basketball shoes and started long distance running,” said Erika, who received her degree in Nursing. “When I first started running, I did 11 minute-30 second miles. Now my pace is 8 minute-20 seconds for marathons. There’s been a lot of progress over the past two years.”
Her sister, Trisha, will also run Berlin
Erika was a distance runner at Revere High, having competed for the RHS cross country and track teams. “Ms. [Katie] Sinnott was my sister Trisha’s cross country coach and then my cross country coach. She’s the best person in the world. I still talk to her to this day,” said Erika.
Trisha, 28, will also run in the Berlin Marathon, which is her first major.
A 2016 graduate of Revere High School, Trisha participated in cross country and track for the Patriots and continued her athletic career at Worcester State College where she earned a bachelor’s degree in Geography and Urban Studies and a master’s degree in Urban, Community and Regional Planning. She currently works as an urban planner and geography information systems analyst in New Hampshire.
“Being the younger sibling and the annoying little sister, I followed anything that she did, and she has been a positive role model throughout my life,” said Erika.
The Cheever sisters will have their own supporters along the Berlin course as Erika’s boyfriend, Zach Carifio, and Trisha’s husband, Tausey Wolfe, will be accompanying them to Germany.
“Our father, [Revere Deputy Fire Chief Paul Cheever] was supposed to go to Germany, but he broke his femur while he was mountain biking in Lynn Woods,” reported Erika. “He’s upset, but I know he and my mother [Jennifer] will be there in spirit.”
Next stop Tokyo
Erika has been training for the marathon ten hours (40 miles) per week, mostly on the Northern Strand Community Trail, which runs through the Rumney Marsh Reservation.
Erika will continue her pursuit of world majors in 2027 when she competes in the Tokyo Marathon.
“I intend to save the best for last, which is the Boston Marathon,” said Erika.
