Aliya Garozzo from Sicklerville and Paul VI advanced to the semifinals of the 400-meter hurdles Thursday evening at the U.S. Olympic Trials in Eugene, Ore.
Garozzo ran 58.12 and placed 5th in the 4th of five heats at Hayward Field. The first five finishers in each qualifying race advance to the semis.
https://results.usatf.org/2024Trials/
Garozzo, who recently completed her junior year at Penn, needed a big finish to move on to the 2nd round. On the final turn, she trailed Vanessa Watson of the University of Florida by about five meters and needed to get past her to advance. But she finished very strong, catching Watson over the 10th and final hurdle and finishing very strong to the line, easily snagging the final auto qualifier in her race.
Watson came off the 9th hurdle at 46.15 and Garozzo at 46.87. But Garozzo covered the 75 meters from the 9th hurdle to the finish line – 35 meters from hurdle 9 to 10 and 40 meters from 10 to the finish – in 11.25 seconds to 14.07 for Watson.
Garozzo is the Penn school record holder with her 56.34 from her win at the Ivy League Championships at Princeton on May 5.
The semis are scheduled for 8:41 p.m. Saturday. The first two finishers in each of three races plus the next three-fastest advance to the final, which is the final event of the Trials, at 8:29 p.m. Sunday.
Garozzo is the 3rd-fastest intermediate hurdler ever from South Jersey, behind only Tonya Lee of Rancocas Valley [55.78 in Walnut, Calif., in 1996] and Krystal Cantey of Winslow Township [56.21 in Gainesville in 2007].
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 