Now the Liverpool boys cross country team has made it past all of the hurdles and are going back to Portland, Oregon, ready to take on the best in the United States at the Nike Nationals, where it finished fourth a year ago.
The Warriors, with the Section III and state Class A championships already in its possession, gained another title when it turned back Fayetteville-Manlius and 25 other challengers during Saturday’s Nike New York-Northeast Regional at Bowdoin Park in Wappingers Falls.
Unlike their Nov. 7 duel in the sectional meet, Liverpool would pull away from F-M amid a larger field. Only the top two teams would automatically advance to the Nike Nationals, with other finishers hoping for the same kind of at-large bid the Warriors received a year ago.
With 72 points, Liverpool handled the challenge from F-M, who with 107 points had to fight off state Class C champion East Aurora (109 points) to get that second spot and make it back to Portland.
Ben Petrella claimed yet another individual championship, and did so by a big margin despite 232 other runners trying to stop him.
In a time of 15 minutes, 31.4 seconds, The West Point-bound Petrella tore through the Bowdoin Park course and beat the runner-up, Saratoga Springs’ Aidan Tooker (15:49.3), by nearly 18 seconds.
Three other Warriors finished in the top 20 among team runners. Ty Brownlow was 11th (17th overall) in a clocking of 16:21.7, while Stevie Schulz was close behind, getting 12th place in the team standings (18th overall) in 16:28.2.
Terrell Coleman claimed an 18th-place team finish (26th overall) in 16:35.2, while Ryan Comstock clinched the team championship with his time of 16:55.6, which put him 35th among team runners and 53rd overall.
Liverpool retained the same seven-runner roster it used at the Nov. 14 state meet. Dan Hunt finished in a time of 17;11.9, with Gabe Alberts posting a time of 17:47.8.
Petrella, Brownlow, Schulz, Coleman, Comstock, Hunt and Alberts will compete on a trail inside Portland’s Glendoveer Golf Course in the Nike Nationals this Saturday as the race gets underway at 2:35 p.m., approximately 90 minutes after the girls race is run.
