Santucci shines at RunningLane championships
Jun. 9—For years, the RunningLane Track Championships have gathered some of the best track and field athletes from all over the country. These athletes compete against one another over the course of two days in Huntsville, Alabama.
For the first time, those championships included Sophie Santucci. The rising senior at Tupelo High School made the most of her opportunity.
Santucci started off by finishing third in the 800-meter run with a personal-best time of two minutes, 19.15 seconds. She followed up by winning the mile run in 5:06.65, also a personal best.
"I knew that no one was going to be super far ahead or super far behind and we were going to be right there pushing each other," she said of the races. "I was just really excited to see what I could do with some competition from all around the country."
That competition and the big stage was something Santucci helped fuel her record numbers.
"It was a little more pressure then I'm used to because it's a lot more eyes on you," she said. "But I feel like sometimes, the pressure can kind of help me run faster."
The performance at RunningLane concludes a junior season that saw Santucci bring home the Class 6A girls state championship in the mile run and third place in the 800 in Pearl in May.
A change in her workout regimen led to those big improvements.
"I've really been doing a lot tougher workouts and I had been doing some workouts twice a day and just doing a lot of different speed work to help certain areas of my mile (1600) and 800 and tapering off during the state meet," she said. "I think all of that really helped."
Santucci has worked with several coaches that she credits with her improvements. Fred Hadley has helped as Tupelo's head track and field coach. Teneeshia Jones-Boyd works as an assistant coach.
Steve Dudley, the former track and field coach at Mississippi State, has been working with her as a personal coach.
"I think they've helped me a lot. They've been very supportive and they want to see me succeed," she said. "Coach Boyd and coach Dudley have really just been there for me and they just want to see me do well and they're going to do whatever they can to see me do well."
For Santucci to do as well as she did at RunningLane was just as Boyd expected.
"Well I'm not surprised. It's Sophie Santucci," Boyd said. "She's been known in our community for running since she was a young girl and so just for her to go out there and compete and it paid off for her. I'm excited to see that for her."
That success also came courtesy of not only physical improvements, but also mental improvements.
"Just making sure that she gives 100% effort in every workout that's given to her, keeping a positive attitude, staying mentally strong. I think all of those have played into her success leading up to RunningLane. That was one reason why she's done well."
The road to a successful junior year was a bumpy one for Santucci.
She originally transferred to Tupelo High from Tupelo Christian. As a result of doing so within a school district, she was ineligible to compete for track and field in her sophomore season. Santucci then missed the 2022 cross country season with an IT band strain.
Overcoming each of those obstacles made her realize what she was capable of.
"I think it made me realize, I, despite all the injuries I've had and all the nagging pains that I feel, that I can overcome it," she said. "I think it helped me realize that I'm stronger than a lot of people because I had all of this that I had to overcome and then I was still able to perform well."
With her senior year still ahead, Santucci hopes to break five minutes in the mile run.
"I think I'm close," she said. "With some hard work, I can do it,"
Doing so would make her the sixth ever Mississippi high school girls runner to break that mark.
