Senior Carly Pettipaw is peaking at the right time for Lenape girls’ track and field.
Entering the home stretch of her high school career, Pettipaw has turned up the heat on the track recently. She helped the Indians to a dominant win at the Lenape District Cup on May 7, winning the 400-meter run, 800-meter run and was part of the victorious 4×400-meter relay team.
Most notable about Pettipaw’s performance was her 800-meter run, where she clocked in at 2:14.52. Her time is the fastest in the state with not much time remaining before the South Jersey Group IV sectional meet on May 22 and 23 at Egg Harbor Township.
“I was determined that I would win the race,” Pettipaw said. “I just tried to race smart, pace myself and just try to kick at the end.”
Pettipaw was going up against a number of quick runners from Lenape’s sister schools, including Seneca’s Kayla Martin, who entered the meet with a better seed time than Pettipaw and set a personal best time with a 2:16.08 in the race. She finished in second, more than 1.5 seconds behind Pettipaw.
Pettipaw felt having another fast runner next to her pushed her to run faster.
“It was really close,” Pettipaw said. “I was really just trying to win that race. I think (Seneca’s) Kayla Martin really tried to help motivate me.”
Prior to this spring, Pettipaw put up her best season in the 800-meter during the 2012–13 indoor season, when she was a sophomore. During that season, Pettipaw ran a 2:14.12 in the 800-meters, her personal best. The time qualified her for the Meet of Champions, where she finished in third place.
Pettipaw was on fire heading into the outdoor season in 2013, but everything came to a halt after she suffered a stress fracture in her foot. The injury caused her to miss nearly all of the 2013 outdoor season.
When Pettipaw returned for her junior year, she spent most of the time getting back into running shape. Her times gradually improved as the season progressed, with her 800-meter time peaking at 2:15.02 at the South Jersey Group IV outdoor sectional.
This season, Pettipaw said she’s in the best shape she’s been in since before her injury.
“It took awhile to get back into shape and get back into the swing of things,” she said. “I feel a lot stronger this year.”
Pettipaw also ran the 800-meter indoor before running it outdoor. She said there is a noticeable difference between the two settings.
“I started the 800 running indoor track,” she said. “So I was used to doing four 200s basically. It’s easier to pace. Outdoor, sometimes, you can’t really tell how fast or how slow you’re going at times. You have to keep track of the people around you.”
Pettipaw is heading into sectionals knowing her state-best time will likely be bested. Times in most races continue to get faster as runners push harder in hopes of reaching June’s Meet of Champions. Last year, Westwood High School’s Corinne Myers won the 800-meter at the Meet of Champions with a time of 2:05.80, almost 10 seconds better than Pettipaw’s time at the Lenape District Cup.
Even with this realization, Pettipaw knows she can get a little bit faster, too. With just a few weeks remaining in her high school career, Pettipaw believes she has more personal best times left in her.
“I’m definitely aiming to knock off a few seconds,” she said. “When I ran that 2:14, I wasn’t collapsed on the ground by any means, so I definitely felt like I could go faster.”
