It only figured that an historic season for Liverpool senior Ben Petrella would conclude with another gold medal on his resume.
Having already won state and individual cross country championships in the fall, Petrella would add another state crown in outdoor track Friday night right in his backyard at Bragman Stadium, prevailing in the 3,200-meter run.
Going into the race, Petrella had only run as fast as 8:59.79 in the 3,200, and knew he would get pushed by Carthage’s Noah Affolder. In the first lap, Affolder went in front, but soon Petrella caught up and the two ran together through the next six laps.
But in the final lap, Petrella found his kick and got away from Affolder, prevailing by 2.82 seconds. What’s more, Petrella’s time of eight minutes, 52.42 seconds broke the state meet record of 8:52.75 set nearly 30 years ago, by Clarke’s Dan Middleman in 1987.
Just before Petrella’s victory, Terrell Coleman produced a bronze medal in the Division I (large school) 800-meter run. In a time of 1:54.31, Coleman shattered his previous personal-best 1:55.96 and finished third as Eion Nohilly (John Jay-Cross River) won in 1:52.77 and Luke Coulter (Riverhead) was second in 1:53.47.
Working together on Saturday, Petrella and Coleman, helped by Stephen Schulz and Collin Gwilt, won their heat in the 4×800 relay in 7:49.72, destroying the previous 8:04.55 they had put up this season and ultimately finishing eighth as Happuage won with 7:41.29.
Elsewhere, host Cicero-North Syracuse got a medal from Shayla Webb in the girls Division I triple jump, where her leap of 39 feet 5 ¾ inches improved upon her best effort of the season by more than a foot and a half and put her in third place.
Westbury’s Denisha West won the triple jump with 40’ ¼” and Leah Blackall (Sachem North) was second with 39’6 ½”, but Webb still earned a berth in Saturday’s overall finals, where she took sixth place with 36’9 ½” as West won with 39’3 ¼”. In the long jump, Webb was 13th, going 17’5”.
Liverpool had Sarah Lavalley make it to sixth place in the discus, her best throw of 115’8’ coming in the first attempt as Binghamton’s Alexis Daniels won with 137’2”. Donald Frost, Brandon Mayfield, Khalil Wales and Nazir Murray finished 16th in the 4×100 relay in 43.79 seconds, improving upon their 43.95 posted a week earlier.
C-NS’s Ed Mahana got to 10th place in the 110 high hurdles in 15.07 seconds, while Jeremiah Willis was 16th in the long jump, going 20’7 ½” as Beacon’sRayvon Grey broke a record Olympic legend Bob Beamon set 53 years earlier with a winning leap of 25’4 ¾”, beating Beamon’s mark by 1 ¼ inches.
Sasha Pulaski gave the Northstars a 19th-place finish in the 100-meter dash in 12.53 seconds, ahead of Liverpool’s Kierra Richardson (12.79 seconds) in 22nd place. Juliana Basla was 15th in the Division I part of the 1,500-meter run in 4:49.95, with Natalie Kurz 15th in the 400-meter hurdles in 1:09.65.
