Cardinal Mooney's Sammy Rotunno nervous at state track meet

Correspondent Photo/Robert Hayes Cardinal Mooney’s Sammy Rotunno runs during the first leg of the Cardinals’ 4×400-meter relay. She will later compete in the Class III 300-meter hurdles.

DAYTON — Just because it was Sammy Rotunno’s second time competing in the OHSAA track and field meet didn’t mean his nerves were any less intense.

“When you’re in the state, you’re in the state” said Rotunno, who just completed his sophomore year at Cardinal Mooney. “Nerves will be on edge either way. There’s not really much you can do about it.”

Nerves didn’t get the better of Rotunno in her second appearance at the state meet, though. A year after placing sixth in the Division III girls’ 4×400-meter relay, Rotunno earned her first individual track and field medal by finishing fifth in the 300-meter hurdles at this year’s meet in Dayton.

Rotunno, who qualified for three events as a sophomore and junior, said the pressure and stress actually helped her grow.

“That’s what you want: for the nerves to push you forward.” Rotunno said. “Nervousness means you care about me and you want to win. If you weren’t nervous, I’d be scared for you because you don’t care. That’s why I want to be nervous. It pushes me to be better.”

The proof is in time.

As a sophomore, Rotunno qualified for the 300-meter hurdles and ultimately finished 10th, one spot away from qualifying for the finals, with a preliminary time of 47.35 seconds. A year later, Rotunno ran the fourth-fastest preliminary time (46.31) before improving in the finals to 45.83, an improvement of more than a second and a half in a year, earning him a fifth-place finish at the 2024 state meet.

While Rotunno believes nerves played a positive role in her improvement, she also became more involved in athletics after her sophomore season in hopes that the extra focus would pay off.

“I play softball and track, so this year I made track my first commitment and I was able to do a little bit more meets, more races and a lot more practices than last year, which gave me a little bit more experience.” Rotunno said. “I was able to run the 300 meters more honestly, and I feel like that helped me a lot.”

Although the other results weren’t what Rotunno wanted (her 4×200 and 4×400 relay teams finished 13th and 16th, respectively), Rotunno said it was important to be able to share her accomplishments with her teammates.

“They work as hard as I do” Rotunno said.“I’m very happy to be here, but I wish they were by my side too. I’m lucky, but they’re just as lucky. They pushed me every day to improve.”

As a senior at Mooney, Rotunno said she set a goal to run a sub-45-second time in the 300-meter hurdles, which would have earned her a better podium finish had she done so this year.

Got a great story to tell? Email Preston Byers at [email protected]. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, @PresByers.

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