H-ton Alum Suzie Petryk Impresses
at Cornell
She was one of Huntington High School’s best female runners ever and now Suzie Petryk’s college career is off to an exciting start at Cornell University.
The Blue Devil alum shined in the 29th annual John Reif Memorial cross country race at Cornell, finishing third in a field of 42 runners from Cornell, Syracuse and SUNY Cortland. Ms. Petryk went wire-to-wire in a personal best 5K time of 18:20.3.
“I really have been loving Cornell, from its huge diversity of people to its absolutely beautiful campus, even to its competitive classes,” Ms. Petryk said. “It’s felt very welcoming towards incoming freshmen from the start. It was much easier to become familiar with the huge campus than I suspected and I find myself loving the large size of the student body.”
Cornell has a high-powered academic environment, even for a top notch student like Ms. Petryk. “I’ve found that I have to study so much more than I was used to in high school to prepare for exams,” she said. “Even if I’m done with homework due soon, there’s always more studying to be done. What has never failed to impress me, though, is the incredible work ethic of most other students here, which has been a motivator for me when classes feel especially rough.”
Ms. Petryk has enjoyed a strong freshman campaign for the Big Red. In the 5K Canisius Alumni Classic the former Huntington star finished ninth among 72 runners in the race in a time of 18:46.6. She was 15th out of 298 competitors in the Lehigh Paul Short 6K Run in a time of 22:22.4.
Ms. Petryk also shined in the Rochester Yellowjacket XC Invitational finishing the 6K race in a time of 23:07.5, which placed her 22nd in a field of 276 runners.
The Huntington alum’s first collegiate race came at the Brother Jasper XC Invite at Manhattan College. Ms. Petryk finished the 5K race in 25th place out of 83 runners. She covered the course in 18:58.
The former Blue Devil great was one of the top steeplechasers in the nation as a senior, clocking a time of 6:55 in a 3K steeplechase race. Ms. Petryk was also exceptional in the 800m run, recording a personal best time of 2:13. She captured All-State honors in both the 1000m run and the 2K steeplechase and was All-County in the 800m.
Ms. Petryk earned five Huntington varsity letters in winter track, four in spring track and three in cross country and holds several Blue Devil records. A member of seven academic honor societies in high school, she graduated as one of the top members of the Class of 2015.
“I really have been loving Cornell, from its huge diversity of people to its absolutely beautiful campus, even to its competitive classes,” Ms. Petryk said. “It’s felt very welcoming towards incoming freshmen from the start. It was much easier to become familiar with the huge campus than I suspected and I find myself loving the large size of the student body. I’ve found that I have to study so much more than I was used to in high school to prepare for exams. Even if I’m done with homework due soon, there’s always more studying to be done. What has never failed to impress me, though, is the incredible work ethic of most other students here, which has been a motivator for me when classes feel especially rough.”
The Huntington alum is currently enrolled in five courses, including multivariable calculus, engineering, general chemistry, introduction to computing and a freshman writing seminar. “I’ve loved being introduced to computer science, which is something I had never previously been exposed to and now wish I had started to learn about sooner,” Ms. Petryk said.
The talented athlete keeps very busy. “Continuing cross country and track has been a decision I am so glad to have made,” Ms. Petryk said. “Since I don’t consider cross country to be my main strength, I went into the season with no expectations except to enjoy it. All of the girls are very supportive of each other and committed to running and it’s been amazing to learn and train beside them. In races, when there’s a pack of Cornell runners around me all working their hardest and I look down and see a red ‘C’ on my uniform, too, I feel incredibly lucky to be able to be a part of a wonderful team.”
The Huntington grad has scheduled a challenging set of classes for the spring semester, including differential equations, physics, Polish, a biology lab and a materials science and engineering course.
“While I’ve loved learning about the multitude and sheer diversity of everyone’s different backgrounds here, I still feel proud and truly fortunate to have graduated from Huntington,” Ms. Petryk said.