Former Hopewell Valley runner excelling at Princeton U.
By: Justin Feil
PHILADELPHIA Laura Petrillo enjoyed a lot of great times, and a lot of great running times at Hopewell Valley High. Finally, she’s doing both at Princeton University as she came in third in her heat of the 3000 steeplechase at the Penn Relays on Thursday night with a time good enough to place her ninth in the top steeplechase heat.
Now a junior for the Tiger women’s cross country and track and field teams, Petrillo sees a bright future for Princeton’s outdoor track and field team, which will compete in the Heptagonals at Yale on Saturday, and for her final year of cross country next fall.
She should know. She was part of the transformation of the Bulldog girls’ program from unknown to state distance running power. She’s one of the reasons that she could sit in the crowd and root on a Hopewell Valley distance medley team that was good enough to finish sixth in the invitation-only event at the Penn Relays on Thursday.
As a sophomore, Hopewell was fourth in sectionals and she was the only Hopewell runner to compete in the Meet of Champions for cross country. By the time she was a senior, she had helped her team become the first Mercer County girls’ cross country team to win a state Group championship, and enabled the Bulldogs to finish third at the Meet of Champions while recording the 14th best individual time in the state on the Holmdel cross country course.
But her freshman year at Princeton was a learning experience. Petrillo found herself no longer in the front of all her races. She finished the year with a 42nd-place showing to help the Tigers win the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference title just weeks after coming in 78th overall at cross country Heptagonals, barely enough to place among the top 10 Princeton runners.
"In high school, I was kind of used to going out really hard and then just kicking it in," Petrillo said. "I’d go out in like a 5:20 mile and come back with a 6:30 second mile maybe. In college, people would hang with you and then go. There are people who are able to run it consistently. I can probably go out at the same time now, but I can hold it.
"I got stronger. I changed my racing strategy in a sense. I run a lot more miles than I did in high school, I cross train a lot. And I think I had a good attitude in high school but I have a good attitude about it."
Petrillo took last year off from the Princeton women’s programs coached by Peter Farrell, but returned for cross country this fall, and after overcoming anemia to open the season, she enjoyed her return enough to continue with track and field again.
"She had a breakthrough at HYP, she did great at Heps, ran great at regionals and did great at pre-Nationals," Farrell said. "She became our second-best runner."
The time off seems to have helped most in that it showed her how much she almost needed the competition and the environment.
"I focused more on academics, and I tried some different things," she said. "I was in a play, I tried some new things, I sort of saw what else was going on at Princeton at 4 o’clock in the afternoon. But a lot of my friends are on the track team and I missed it. It really made me realize it’s a big family in a dorky way.
"In a sense, (the time off) helped my attitude. I was still running, but I wasn’t racing. It helped me come back with some goals. And cross country started well. I had a breakthrough race at H-Y-Ps and ever since the, it really has gotten to be a main focus."
For the outdoor track and field season, Petrillo’s focus has been with the steeplechase, a grueling event that combines distance running with barriers and water pits. Fans seem drawn to the event for some of the same reasons they come out for boxing matches or NASCAR races to see someone get hurt.
"It’s really fun, but I think you do have to be a little crazy to do it," Petrillo said. "I wasn’t really doing as well in normal races as a freshman, so I said, ‘I’ll try this.’ I ended up running it and it’s more exhausting than anything you could run. But you get to jump over stuff. The fact I have haven’t gotten injured makes me think I think I can handle it. I don’t have the same build as most distance runners. I’m not light and tiny."
In fact, Petrillo is different from a lot of distance runners. She’s not cut from the same mold.
"I really wanted to do a lot of things," she said. "I really wanted to do pole vault. I wanted to do javelin. I tried that and stunk at it. I always wanted to do other stuff. When I was little, I did everything. I played everything, but I wasn’t very coordinated. I can put one foot in front of the other though. The steeplechase takes some coordination and it’s something different I can do."
Petrillo was fluid Thursday as she actually appeared to have plenty left at the end of her 3000 steeplechase race Thursday. Her time of 10:54.10 placed her just a second behind Columbia’s Delilah DiCrescenzo, who she’ll see again this weekend at Heptagonals.
"It was a (personal record) by about five seconds," Petrillo said. "Anything under 11 minutes is good for me. I’m pretty much happy with it, but I want to run faster. Having something left means I probably could have run faster. I probably didn’t use all my energy. It’s something I can work on. It was a fun night though.
"The most important thing I took away," she added, "was, my time was OK and I’m not happy I didn’t beat the Columbia girl, but I was able to run in a crowd. The most I’d ever had in a race before was about 10. Usually there’s three or five maybe. It was important that I could go over barriers in a crowd. Usually I’m doing it by myself."
It was Petrillo’s first appearance in an individual event at the Penn Relays after competing there for Hopewell in the 4×400 and 4×800. And her PR proves how far she’s come in the steeplechase in two seasons of running it.
"I did run it a couple times my freshman year," Petrillo said. "I did get into it, but I wasn’t running it well. I had a little bit of hurdle experience from Timberlane (Middle School). I had hurdling form from it. I told Peter that I wanted to try it. I had the hurdle form, but then he used to tell me that all I needed was to get in shape to race.
"I think now my times for steeplechase have been about as fast as my open 3000 times were. If not, I’m approaching them."
"She’s in much better shape now," Farrell said. "She has a strong mindset. Even as a freshman, when I saw her running, I knew she was running hard. I’m delighted to see her turnaround."
With just a couple of weeks remaining until the end of her junior year, Laura Petrillo is looking to continue to improve, something that will make for some pretty quick running times as well more enjoyable times for Petrillo and Princeton.
"If anyone has the determination to win, it’s Laura," Farrell said. "She doesn’t want to do it if she can’t win. You can see it’s important to her."
Her return is also important for the chances of the Tiger women’s track and field and cross country teams that are happy to be enjoying some great times again with someone who knows how to shape a winner.

