Malibu High School sophomore Caroline Pietrzyk submitted a personal-record performance on the biggest stage of her young career Saturday, becoming the third female athlete in program history to win a CIF southern section title and the first since 2000. She now moves on to the southern section Masters.
Pietrzyk, 15, ran the 3,200 meters in a personal-best time of 10:47.70 to take home a CIF title at the Southern Section track and field championships at Mount San Antonio College, according to the Los Angeles Daily News. She finished fifth in a 3,200 final featuring runners from both Div. IV and Div I. schools, coming out on top for Malibu’s classification.
“It feels great. I didn’t realize (I made Masters) until now. I was just trying to PR. That’s all I wanted,” Pietrzyk told the Daily News.
Coming into the race, Pietrzyk was ranked No. 1 in CIF in Division IV for the 3,200. Overall she was 11th in Southern California and 19th in the state.
In a recent Malibu Times article, Pietrzyk talked about her improvement from the beginning of the season to today.
“I just want to keep improving my time and pushing myself to some place that I don’t think I can go to. At the beginning of the season I didn’t think I could break 11 minutes, and I broke 11 minutes,” Pietrzyk said of the 3200 event. “Now I don’t think I can break 10:45 but maybe I will end up doing that.”
Pietrzyk was also asked about the possibility of winning the CIF title.
“I have to get my head around doing something like that and embracing that level of competition,” Pietrzyk said.