Suzie Petryk Sets New Blue Devil
Track Record
Suzie Petryk speedily circled the track twice last Saturday at the St. Anthony’s Invitational and crossed the finish line first, shattering the 36-year old Huntington High School 800m run record.
Petryk was at the top of her craft, covering the distance in 2:16.15 to snap Pia Palladino’s school record of 2:16.4 set in 1979. Palladino went on enjoy a storied running career at Georgetown University. Petryk is headed to Cornell University in the fall.
The Blue Devils enjoyed many spectacular performances and personal best efforts over the course of the two-day meet. Huntington finished tied for ninth in the team standings with 22 points. Only three points separated the team from a fourth place showing.
The event drew competitors from about 100 high schools from across the New York metropolitan area, including 46 that placed an athlete in the top six of their respective event.
“The St. Anthony’s Invitational is the biggest invite on Long Island and it always brings some great competition,” said Shawn Anderson, Huntington’s head coach. “They have qualifying standards so we only bring the girls who hit those standards.”
The 800m run was probably Huntington’s best event last Saturday. Besides Petryk’s record setting performance, teammates Alexandra Koumas (2:22.68) and Katie Nugent (2:22.98) both ran well. “They were both in the second heat and got boxed in early,” Anderson said. “Trying to stay out of traffic, they basically ran in lanes three and four most of the way, but still managed to lower their bests by nearly a second each.”
While Anderson and Petryk always have a plan sketched out going to every race, once the starting gun sounds, things sometimes change. “Suzie shot to the front and everyone just stayed behind her,” the coach said. “She kept it close and was battling the wind all the way. She came through the first 400m in 69 seconds. She made her move on the backstretch and held on for the win, running the second half in 66 seconds.”
Petryk had been eyeing Palladino’s record since last year so it was especially satisfying to finally shatter the mark of one of the Blue Devil runners ever.
In other action:
• Triple jump: Rookie Anna Gulizio, who is still working on her technique, had a huge jump of 34’6 to place ninth. It was a personal best by more than one foot.
• Shot put: Betty Huitt finished in 10th place with a throw of 32’2, one inch shy of her best mark.
• Pole vault: Nina Cartwright cleared 9’0 to place ninth. “We’re working with a new pole and harder practices, so we hope that translates to higher, more consistent clearances,” Anderson said.
• 400m hurdles: Alexandra Koumas ran a season best time of 66.81. It’s more than two seconds ahead of where she was at this time last year,” Anderson said.
• 4x1600m relay: The team of Alexis Pastorelli, Nicole Abbondandelo, Louise Koepele and Suzie Petryk ran a great race. Petryk split a 5:12 for her1600m leg to move Huntington from eighth to fourth place and earn the group a medal with a final time of 22:12.60.
• Discus: Nina Cartwright has been working really hard to sharpen her technique and it showed as she notched a personal best distance of 87’8.
• 1500m race walk: Kayla Eidle battled a strong headwind, but still crossed the finish line in 7:48. It’s her second best time ever.
• 3000m run: Battling a cold, Nicole Abbondadelo opened her season with a gutsy performance, crossing the finish line in 10:50, just one second off her indoor best. “She was really happy with the result, because she feels at full strength she will be ready to lower that best by a lot,” Anderson said. Abbondandelo’s time was the best for a freshman in the field and placed her eighth overall.
• 400m dash: Katie Nugent (61.09) and Latoya Shand (61.13) ran a strong race into the wind, finishing 15th and 16th, respectively.
• 2000m steeplechase: As the sun dropped it started to get cold. But, in her second steeplechase race ever, Alexis Pastorelli dropped 18 seconds on her previous time and finished in 7:47.79 for 11th place. She was less than 15 seconds away from sixth place.
• 4x100m relay: The quartet of Anne Osias, Lexi Mills, Christie Rienersten and Maliyah Davis finished in a time of 55.44.
• 4x400m relay: Alexis Pastorelli, Louise Koepele, Anna Gulizio and Latoya Shand ran the race in 4:15.44.
• 4x800m relay: With all four Huntington athletes on their third race of the evening, Katie Nugent, Alexandra Koumas, Nicole Abbondanelo and Suzie Petryk found a little more strength and ran 9:42.02 to finish in second place in a strong field.
“It was a tough intense meet,” Anderson said. “All of the girls competed well. May is really when the season starts to heat up and every athlete is working hard. This was a really positive meet and there were great results for everyone with many season and personal records. It was also the highest finish in the St. Anthony’s Invitational in recent history for the girls’ squad.”