Sterling graduate Sydney Coppolino, in her first open race in a year, annihilated her indoor PR and collegiate PR with a 2:11.94 Saturday in Blacksburg, Va.
Coppolino, a Virginia sophomore, placed 3rd at the Doc Hale Virginia Tech Elite, finishing behind only two Va. Tech runners – Lauren Berman (2:07.50) and Hannah Ballowe (2:11.51) — in the field of 15.
Coppolino’s previous collegiate indoor 800 PR was a 2:15.67 at a meet at Clemson last winter. She had run legs on a 4-by-4 and DMR this winter but this was her first open race in almost exactly one year — since Feb. 8, 2019.
Her time is No. 13 this year in the ACC. She ran 2:11.45 outdoors in high school at the 2017 Meet of Champions at Northern Burlington. Her previous overall indoor PR was a 2:15.06 for Sterling at 2017 Easterns at the Armory.
The race went out fast. Coppolino was out in 31.8 and 31.6 before coming back in 33.5 and 35.0 for 63.4 and 68.5. It’ll be interesting to see how fast she can go in a little bit more evenly paced race!
Virginia has been such a successful track program over the years that a 2:11 doesn’t get you on the Cavalier’s all-time indoor top 10, but we’ll link to it here because it’s just an impressive list, and there are some familiar names through the Virginia all-time lists to South Jersey track fans. See how many you can find!
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 