Ben Petrella already had an individual state championship in cross country. Now the Liverpool senior sought more glory as he headed the local contingent going to last Saturday’s New York State Public High School Athletic Association championship meet at Cornell University’s Barton Hall.
Petrella was the second-fastest qualifier for the boys 3,200-meter run with his season-best time of nine minutes, 3.74 seconds. In this final, Petrella would not quite match that time, posting 9:08.87, but still getting the third-place medal (second in NYSPHSAA) as Saratoga’s Aidan Tooker won with 9:03.81 and St. Anthony’s Ryan Kutch posted 9:06.18.
Terrell Coleman and Steve Schulz took part in the 1,000-meter run. Coleman also reached the podium, finishing sixth in a time of 2:32.73, while Schulz was further back, taking 20th place in 2:37.60. Lancaster’s Steve Neumaier won the race in 2:29.48.
Meanwhile, Ty Brownlow, competing in the mile, finished second in his own heat, and his time of 4:28.67 gave him 14th place overall, right behind West Genesee’s David Leff (4:26.95) in eighth place and Fayetteville-Manlius’ Bryan Geehrer (4:27.70) in 10th place. Corning’s Kevin Moshier won the mile in 4:20.44.
Petrella, Coleman, Schulz and Brownlow were expected to contend in the 4×800 relay, too, but had to settle for 10th place after posting a time of 8:16.80. Two sides broke the eight-minute mark as Warwick Valley (7:54.07) edged West Islip (7:55.45) for the top spot.
Donald Frost joined Section III’s distance medley relay team, which included Cicero-North Syracuse’s Andrew Bearkland, plus Ethan Craig (Baldwinsville) and Patrick McGuane (Marcellus). Together, they finished sixth in 9:01.93, with Section IX (8:55.45) taking the top spot. Brandon Mayfield was in the 55-meter dash, posting 6.70 seconds but unable to reach the semifinals as got 23rd place.
On the boys end for C-NS, Jeremiah Willis, Matt Kilian, Tyler Days and Zach Kennedy took part in the 4×200 relay. In a time of 1:37.18, the Northstars ended up in 11th place as South Shore eventually won with a time of 1:30.47.
Individually, Ed Mahana, in the 55-meter hurdles, got a time of 8.08 seconds, when it took 7.86 seconds to advance to the semifinals. Mahana settled for 21st place, with Huntington’s Infinite Tucker winning in 7.38 seconds.
Moving to the girls state meet, C-NS’s Destiny Monica was in both the shot put and weight throw, joined in the shot put by her teammate, Kierrah Butler.
During the shot put, Monica finished 11th with a top throw of 36 feet 5 ½ inches and Butler was 12th, heaving it 36’2” as Binghamton’s Alexis Daniels won with 47’5 ¼”/In the weight throw, Monica got 23rd place with a top toss of 35’8 ½” as New Rochelle’s Monae Cooper, who was second in the shot put, won here with 55’2”.
As for Liverpool, Juliana Basla took part in the 1,500-meter run and won her heat in a time of 4:46.20. Ultimately, that put Basla in 10th place in the final standings, with North Shore’s Diana Vizza (4:31.67) on top.
Morgan Chewning-Kulick was in the 1,000 as Vanessa Eberhard was part of the sectional distance medley relay team. Chewning-Kulick gained 25th place in the 1,000 in 3:10.54 as Rush-Henrietta’s Sammy Watson won here in 2:51.33 and also won the state 600-meter run.
Eberhard, Kayla Barber, Gabrielle Dewhurst and Casey Keane finished seventh in 10:51.05, with Section II (10:22.64) in the top spot.
