Angel Piccirillo held off Izzy Thorton-Bott on the final stretch. Photo by Cierra Hitner
Angel Piccirillo represented Eugene-based Oregon Track Club Elite for her first time on Friday and won the 1,500-meter invitational at the Oregon Relays in 4 minutes, 13.45 seconds. Oregon’s Izzy Thornton-Bott finished in a close second with a personal best of 4:13.75.
Piccirillo joined OTC Elite this year after her coach and mentor at Little Wing Athletics, Lauren Fleshman, took a sabbatical from coaching. Fleshman is an alum of Oregon Track Club Elite, as is Piccirillo’s fiancé, Patrick Tiernan.
“It’s been a great transition,” she said. “I mean, Eugene is home.”
Piccirillo said she noticed a difference in training in Eugene at sea level after living in Bend, which is at an elevation of about 3,500 feet. OTC Elite returned last week from training at altitude in Flagstaff, Arizona, in preparation for the outdoor season.
“We’re trying to see how the benefits of that paid off,” Piccirillo said. She finished just one second slower than her 1,500-meter season opener last year.
Piccirillo said her goal going into the race was to stay relaxed and save energy for her kick.
“In my head, I wanted to stay relaxed through 1,000 and then kind of start winding up the last lap, at the bell,” Piccirillo said.
She committed to that strategy and maintained her position tucked behind Nike Bowerman Track Club’s Vanessa Fraser and made her move at the bell lap, pulling ahead of Fraser with Katie Camarena and Thornton-Bott following.
“We came around the turn and I came up on the leader and then, once you’re there, there is no looking back,” she said. “At 300 I was like, just hit it home now.”
Thornton-Bott was shoulder-to-shoulder with Camarena, who ran unattached, on the final curve until Thornton-Bott moved to the inside and passed Camarena to close in on Piccirillo for the last 100 meters.
“One of my goals going into the bell lap, and what I think I did really well in this race, was I wanted to stay connected to the leaders,” Thornton-Bott said. She said she let this gap open when she ran the 1,500 meters at the Hayward Premiere two weeks ago. “I wanted to make sure that gap didn’t happen this time around.”
Thornton-Bott was in position at the rail to pass Piccirillo.
“I could feel her, and it’s like, you’re starting to feel tired, but you’re trying to keep your foot down on the gas,” Piccirillo said.
Thornton-Bott didn’t have the energy in the final meters to pass Piccirillo, but the challenge brought her to a new personal best by nearly three seconds. And even though Piccirillo didn’t reach a personal best, she said the race was a good place to start.
“At the end of the day, all you can do is all you can do,” Piccirillo said. “But it’s nice to win one.”
