PIAA Track & Field Highlights – Day Two

By: HSSN Staff
Sunday, May 29, 2016 | 8:52 AM

It was a one-of-a-kind day for Dom Perretta. He pulled off an unassisted double and triple play.

Perretta, a senior  made history at the PIAA individual track and field championships Saturday at Shippensburg University. His double play came when he won the Class AA 800- and 1,600-meter runs. His triple play was that he won both events for the third year in a row.

The effort put Perretta into the record book. He became the first runner in PIAA history to win both the 800 and 1,600 three consecutive years – in any classification.

But Perretta did more than win both events again. He set a Class AA championship meet record in the 800 with a time of 1 minute, 50.10 seconds, breaking the mark of 1:51.96 set 29 years ago.

Besides wanting to win both titles, Perretta had said earlier in the week that he was shooting for the 800 record. With about 200 meters to go, he wondered if he would get it.

“At the 200 mark, I heard my coach yell at me, ‘too slow, too slow.’ He was yelling at me to pick it up and I tried to,” said Perretta. “I got near the finish line at 1:48 and just tried to lean and pick up my knees.”

Perretta was one of two WPIAL athletes to win two gold medals at the two-day meet. The other was Knoch’s Jordan Geist. He set a state championship meet record in the Class AAA shot put Friday and became only the fourth thrower in U.S. high school history to reach 74 feet. On Saturday, he won the discus with a throw of 183-0.

All told over the two days, the WPIAL won 14 gold medals in individual events. For Connellsville junior Madison Wiltrout, she won the Class AAA javelin for the third year in a row with a throw of 164-1. This time, she won the event on her final throw of the competition. She was in third place until then.

Wiltrout set a national high school record a year ago with a throw of 185-8 and set a state championship meet record a few weeks later. But that was all before she had surgery on her right elbow last June. In a sense, she is still recovering from the surgery.

“I’m not 100 percent yet,” said Wiltrout. “There is a lot more to work on and improve on.”

Avonworth sophomore Hunter Robinson won the Class AA 400 with a time of 55.64, but she went home with three medals. She also finished third in the 100 and third in the 200.

Robinson’s sister, Hayden, finished second in the 100. Hayden Robinson is only a freshman.

Sewickley Academy’s Summer Thorpe won the Class AA 100 hurdles with a time of 14.15 seconds. It came close to the championship meet record of 14.03.

Thorpe also finished third in the 300 hurdles, a disappointing race for her.

“Overall, I’m happy to have a state championship,” said Thorpe. “But this third place. … I just didn’t have a good race form-wise or strategy-wise. It wasn’t even my PR time.”

Two distance runners from the WPIAL won PIAA Class AA titles for the second year in a row. Vincentian’s Marianne Abdalah won the 1,600 and Quaker Valley’s Hannah Bablak the 800. Abdalah also has three consecutive PIAA cross-country titles to her credit.

Kiski Area’s Jace Roundtree won the Class AAA hurdles with a time of 14.18.

New Brighton’s Anthony Milliner won the Class AA triple jump at 48-5 ½. He finished third last year.

“I came up here last year seeded first, just like this year,” said Milliner. “I still appreciated the place I got last year, but it feels so much better to win it.”

North Allegheny’s Ayden Owens won the Class AAA 300 hurdles in 37.84.

Fort Cherry’s Koryn Jozwiakowski won the Class AA triple jump with a leap of 37-9.