Aliya Rae Garozzo had already been one of the state's top girls in the 400-meter hurdles, running the ninth-fastest time in New Jersey this season a week ago at the Camden County Championships.

Yet not even Garozzo, a sophomore at Paul VI, could expect to make as big a leap as she did at the South Jersey, Non-Public A sectional championships Monday.

Garozzo kicked off the sectional meet with a blazing 1:02.37 time that was the second-fastest time by an N.J. athlete this year, trailing only West Essex's Reanda Richards and her 59.17 time at the Penn Relays. This all comes after just three overall competitive runs in the 400m hurdles, including her NJ#8 1:03.96 performance at the county championships.

“That’s really crazy. Just being a sophomore and being No. 2, barely running the hurdles last year it’s all really crazy,” Garozzo said. “I didn’t really hit great times even after I won at the county meet last week. Before that, there wasn’t much that was too special. I started out my season running 1:05 and I wasn’t happy with that. I just wanted to keep getting better so I’ve really been putting the work in at practice. After last week I expected to do well here.”

Garozzo certainly had some great competition to push her to that fast time. A fellow sophomore in Union Catholic's Zamira Ysaac, who held the NJ#2 mark at 1:02.46 heading into Monday, placed second in 1:03.00 with Garozzo's teammate in Carly Schmidt clocking in at NJ#13 1:04.04 for third place.

While the Eagles sophomore certainly wanted to take a few moments to let that time sink in, there's still plenty of work ahead of her, namely at the Non-Public A championships on the first weekend of June. Garozzo, who says she's aiming for 1:02-flat before the end of the season, will have to run once again with Union Catholic's bevy of hurdlers as well as some tough competition from the North section including Paramus Catholic's Mariah Fede and Kent Place's Josephine Daab at Franklin High School for the state championship.

“It turned out to be a great day for it and it’s a nice track. It’s really crazy for that to happen and it’s great to hear," Garozzo said. "It really means a lot and it shows that all the practice is going towards something and that it’s working. It’s going to help me and push me to work even harder these next two years and see even bigger improvements by my senior year.”