Recent graduate of Moses Brown School in Rhode Island and Harvard commit still pursuing sub-2 performance, also seeking title in international debut for U.S. in Puerto Rico

By Mary Albl of DyeStat

Sophia Gorriaran made headlines early in her prep career as a name to remember — and one for folks to try and pronounce correctly.

An athlete from Moses Brown, R.I., with versatile range from the 200 to the 3,000 meters, Gorriaran was frequenting high-profile races as typically one of the youngest competitors in the field.

As a middle schooler, she boasted a 2:08.52 time in the 800.

In the ninth grade, she toed the line against now professional runners Jessica Hull and Michaela Meyer at the Boston University Last Chance Indoor Invitational, where she broke the freshman class national record by running 2:03.98.

Since then, she’s raced in the Millrose Games, New Balance Indoor Grand Prix, Trial of Miles Texas and New York, along with the Penn Relays, just to name a few.

The summer of her junior year, she was the youngest athlete to compete in the U.S. Olympic Trials in the women’s 800.

This past spring, Gorriaran finished her career at Moses Brown with seven indoor and six outdoor track records, and holds a ridiculously impressive seven national class records.

“I’m really happy with how my high school career has gone and I’m pretty proud of it,” Gorriaran said. “It was a really good experience and I don’t think many high schoolers will have that same experience that I had being able to compete at a really high level with really experienced people and professionals. I’m happy to get that chance and run pretty well.”

Before she heads off to Harvard University, she’ll face a new challenge and an opportunity to add to her prep legacy — her first international races representing the United States.

Gorriaran will compete Saturday and Sunday at the Pan American U20 Championships in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico, in the 800, where she is one of the favorites to win the title.

“I’m super excited because last year I didn’t get the opportunity because I was hurt, so this means a lot to me,” she said.

A year ago, Gorriaran missed out on a chance to qualify for the World Athletics U20 Championships.

Roisin Willis and Juliette Whittaker, now rising sophomores at Stanford, captured gold and bronze medals at the World Athletics U20 Championships in Cali, Colombia, where Willis won the title in a meet-record time of 1:59.13.

Gorriaran spent a majority of her prep career racing against Willis and Whittaker at invitationals, pushing one another to new limits. This past year, with Willis and Whittaker in college, she’s had the unique challenge to continue to push the barriers and own the middle-distance spotlight.

“Yeah, it’s definitely different,” Gorriaran said. “I think they pushed me a lot the past couple years. I miss having them in the high school environment, but I think I raced a lot indoors more in pro races, so that was good running experience.”

Gorriaran comes from an athletic family.

Her dad, Steve, played college football. Her brother, Max, will be a senior on the track team at Boston University this fall, while her sister, Natasha, is a junior at the University of Pennsylvania playing lacrosse, earning Honorable Mention All-Ivy League selection as a sophomore.

Gorriaran, also a standout lacrosse player, suffered an injury last spring in the sport, so she turned her focus to running for her senior year. After winning the Rhode Island State Cross Country title in the fall, she put together an impressive winter season, highlighted by a Nike Indoor national title in the 800.

Gorriaran said the focus for the outdoor season was the end goal of qualifying for Pan Ams. It’s been building up, as she won Rhode Island state 800 and 1,500 titles, and ran on the winning 4x400 relay for Moses Brown.

In late June, she won the New Balance Nationals Outdoor 800 crown. On July 8, at the USATF U20 Outdoor Championships, she won the 800 in 2:04.33, while Illinois’ Ali Ince was second (2:05.22), both qualifying for Pan Ams.

“I think this was the most important and everything was building up to this,” Gorriaran said. “I started my season pretty late, and I was going to be running so late in the summer, so I didn’t really start doing too much until the beginning of June, so it hasn’t felt like such a long of a season in that way.”

Most recently, she raced at the Under Armour Sunset Tour at Occidental College in Los Angeles, where she clocked a season-best time of 2:02.56 in the women’s 800.

“It was a cool environment,” she said. “The race didn’t go as I planned it to go, as there were a lot of people in the field, and I didn’t manage my race tactics well, so it wasn’t the best. But it was a new season-best for me this year and I think it was a good tuneup for Pan Ams.”

During the Pan Ams, Gorriaran and Ince will represent the U.S. as the top two seeds in a field that is also scheduled to include Isabel Conde de Frankenberg of Cedar Park High in Texas, last year’s New Balance Nationals Outdoor 800 champion, representing Argentina.

“I’m excited for it all,” Gorriaran said. “I think I run Sunday in the morning in the semifinals and then the finals are in the night that will be different than what I’ve ever experienced, so definitely have to manage that and I try not to be nervous as best as I can and try to think of it as being excited for what I’m about to do.”

As one of the most highly decorated prep middle-distance runners, Gorriaran would still like to check off the box of running under 2 minutes in the 800, a signature achievement only three female high school runners have done – Mary Cain, Whittaker and Willis.

Pan Ams will serve as Gorriaran’s last prep races before college. And no matter the outcome, Gorriaran is sure to leave a lasting mark, looking to follow fellow American Athing Mu, who captured gold in the 800 for the U.S. at the 2019 Pan American U20 Championships in San Jose, Costa Rica. 

“Yeah, that’s definitely something I’m trying to achieve,” Gorriaran said. “I don’t have too many races left. The time to do it would be at Pan Ams.”