While she’s already graduated from high school and last month won an individual title for 800 meters at the New Balance Nationals (NBN), the outdoor season isn’t quite finished for Sophia Gorriaran.
in fact, this past weekend at the USATF U20 Championships, she extended it even further,
The recent Moses Brown grad made the best of her cross-country trek to historic Hayward Field by capturing individual gold in the 800m on Saturday and then, less than 24 hours later, taking runner-up honors in the 1,500m. Gorriaran’s respective finishes earned her a ticket to the Pan American U20s in Puerto Rico in August.
In what proved to be more of a tactical race in the prelims on Friday, Gorriaran secured a spot in the 800m finals by winning her opening heat with a time of 2 minutes, 10.18. She took the finals on Saturday with a time of 2:04.33. The Harvard-bound runner was in control throughout the race, hitting her opening 400m split at 1:00.19. She held off Brooks PR winner Allison Ince, who was timed in 2:05.22 for second. On Sunday, Gorriaran earned her second Pan Am qualifier of the weekend by placing second to Belmont’s Ellie Shea of Emerging Elite with a near state mark of 4:21.10. Shea won the race in 4:19.58. Gorriaran’s time is just off her state mark of 4:20.21, which she did at the New Balance in mid June en route to her PR of 4:41.98, a time that’s also a state record.
***
Gorriaran wasn’t the only RI athlete at U20s. In the six-kilogram hammer throw on Saturday, Lincoln’s Christian Toro was fourth overall. Toro finished behind three collegiate athletes with a best of 216 feet, 6 inches.
