Paul VI graduate Aliya Garozzo, who graduated from Penn and then earned a graduate degree at Duke, began her post-collegiate racing career in Winston-Salem, N.C., this past weekend with a big PR in the 400.
Garozzo, the fastest intermediate hurdle ever from South Jersey, ran 52.96 at the Camel City Sprints at JDL Fast Track on Saturday.
That ranks her 22nd this year among U.S. women. It’s also well below the B qualifying standard of 54.00 for the U.S. Championships Feb. 28-March 1 at Ocean Breeze. The auto standard is 52.20. The qualifying window closes Feb. 22.
She dropped her indoor PR from 53.47 from the ACC Championships in Louisville this past March.
This was her first race since NCAAs in Eugene in June.
Garozzo’s 400IH PR of 55.77 at the Duke Invitational in Durham, N.C., in April, was 16th-fastest among U.S. women last year and is 2nd-fastest ever by a New Jersey high school graduate, behind only world record holder and two-time Olympic 400IH gold medalist Sydney McLaughlin, who ran 50.37 in the 2024 Olympic final in Paris.
Garozzo, from Sicklerville, has an overall 400 PR is an outdoor 52.54 this past March in Raleigh, N.C.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 