Oct. 6, 2015
For the second time this season, Vanderbilt’s Caroline Pietrzyk has been named the SEC Women’s Freshman Runner of the Week.
Pietrzyk was honored by the conference on Tuesday after posting a personal-best time of 16:56.3 at last weekend’s Notre Dame Invitational, where she finished first among the Commodores and 17th overall. She won the same award two weeks ago following her historic effort at the Commodore Classic.
The announcement of Pietrzyk’s award was the second piece of good news that the Commodores received on Tuesday. Earlier in the day, they moved up one spot — from No. 22 to 21 — in the USTFCCCA rankings and maintained their position at No. 1 in the South Region.
Pietrzyk, from Malibu, Cali., has now paced the VU women in each of her first three college races. Her performance Friday — along with several strong performances from her teammates — helped the Commodores take fourth at the prestigious meet.
“It always nice to see one of our athletes be recognized,” said head coach Steve Keith. “We are very happy for Caroline. We were also extremely pleased to see the other members of the team bridge the gap and help Caroline carry the load. It was a great team meet.”
Pietrzyk took third among all freshman, behind only meet champion Ryen Frazier (of NC State) and Anna Rohrer (Notre Dame) who is a former Foot Locker champion.
“Caroline is doing a great job of adjusting to college,” said associated head coach Rhonda Riley. “She is a fearless competitor and has great race instincts. We are excited to see how the season unfolds for her and the team.”
Two weeks ago, Pietrzyk delivered a historic performance at the Commodore Classic, where her time of 17:04.80 was the best-ever by a Vanderbilt athlete in the history of Vaughn’s Gap (the team’s home course for more than 30 years) and the No. 5 all-time mark at the course. She was named the SEC’s Freshman of the Week for her effort at the Classic.
Vanderbilt is idle this weekend before traveling to Madison, Wisc., for the Wisconsin Invitational on Oct. 16.