Fantastic breakthrough race Friday for Paul VI graduate Aliya Garozzo, who broke the Penn school record in the 400-meter hurdles at the Florida Relays.
Garozzo, a junior at Penn, ran 57.97 and placed 7th in a loaded field with top collegians and post-graduates.
Her time is No. 17 in NCAA Division 1 this year and broke the school record of 58.26 set by Skyla Wilson at the 2019 Ivy League championships at Princeton. Wilson has since transferred to Miami and Duke.
Garozzo’s previous PR was 59.76 last March at the Penn Challenge at Franklin Field. But she ran a series of sub-53 relay legs this winter that indicated her fitness was well below that range. She anchored Penn’s Ivy League-record 3:29.86 1,600-meter relay at Clemson last month.
Garozzo’s time is 7th-fastest ever by a South Jersey woman, just behind another former Ivy League hurdler, Pennsville’s Arianna Smith, who ran 57.84 last spring at Penn. Smith is now at Rutgers. Her time is No. 1 this year in the Ivy League.
She’s No. 33 on the 2024 world list and No. 14 among U.S. women.
Here’s my best attempt at an all-time New Jersey intermediate hurdles top-10 alumni list:
50.68 … Sydney McLaughlin [Union Catholic], July 22, 2022, Eugene, Ore.
55.78 … Tonya Lee [Rancocas Valley], April 21, 1996, Walnut, Calif.
56.21 … Krystal Cantey [Winslow Twp.], May 26, 2007, Gainesville, Fla.
56.87 … Evann Thompson [Lenape], May 30, 2014, Jacksonville, Fla.
56.91 … Angela Lee [Franklin Twp,.], May 24, 1998, Fairfax, Va.
57.14 … Leslie Njoku [McNair Academic], June 8, 2011, Des Moines, Iowa
57.16 … Jewel Ash [Eastern], May 9, 2022, High Point, N.C.
57.31 … Danielle Myricks [Willingboro], May 19, 2002, Columbia, Mo.
57.84 … Arianna Smith [Pennsville], May 6, 2023, Philadelphia
57.97 … Aliya Garozzo [Paul VI], March 30, 2024, Gainesville, Fla.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 