Stephanie Pezzullo

A High School Soccer All-American, Stephanie Pezzullo, or Pezz as she is known among athletes, went on to play at Penn State University. She started every season for the 4th ranked Nittany Lions who clinched the Big Ten Championship all 4 years she played. At the culmination of her senior soccer season, Pezz expanded her athletic pursuits and competed in Outdoor Varsity Track for at PSU. Despite not having a background in track, Pezzullo was able to get her 1500-meter time down to 4:29 in just one season.

After a couple of seasons of playing in the Semi-Professional Womens Soccer Leauge in Charlotte, NC, Pezz started to take running more serious and pursue it as her main sport. In 2006, she worked with ZAP Elite Running Club of Blowing Rock, NC and started to make some successful headway both in road and track races. However, in 2007, an accident in the 3k Steeplechase forced her to have a major ankle reconstruction surgery to where the prospect of making a comeback as an Elite Runner looked dim. After two and a half years of injury and trying to figure out how to get her running gait back to normal, (or as close to it as possible) Pezz credits her switch in footwear to Newton Running Shoes as one of the main reasons to how she did. Between wearing the shoes, and adhering to a strict exercise regiment of certain drills and core exercises, she was able to gain her form back and started training consistently again toward the latter part of 2009. Since her competitive comeback in 2010, she has progressively lowered her times in events ranging from the 1500m to 15k distances. For 4 years, she has met the USA Track and Field “A” qualifying standards to compete in the USA Track National championships. This past 2011 year, she attained personal records on the track in the 3k Steeplechase (9:56) and the 5k (15:54) and has also lowered her times on the road in the 5k, 8k, 10k, and 15k distances. In September, she came in 6th place among the Nations best at the 5k National Road Championships in Providence, Rhode Island. While there, she clocked a time of 16:05. In October, she again finished among the top ten (8th place) at the 10k National Road Championships in Boston, Massachusetts. On Thanksgiving Day, she competed and finished as the 3rd American and 6th place overall Female at the Historic 4.75 Mile Manchester Road Race. She ran the course in 25 minutes and 25 seconds. Other successful 2011 road races have included a 2nd Place American finish at the prestigious Boilermaker 15k in Uttica, NY, and also a 3rd place American finish at the Peachtree Road Race in Atlanta, GA. She ran times of 51:45 and 34:14 respectively for those races.

To bring in 2012, Pezz took first at the Emerald Nuts Midnight Run in NYC, covering the 4 mile course in 21:05. On January 15th, in her second attempt at the event, she won the Naples Half-Marathon in 1:13:12. She attained a qualifying mark in the 3k Steeplechase for the Olympic Trials in June but opted to focus her training on a Fall debut marathon running 2:32 at the Chicago Marathon for 1oth overall and 4th American.