SHIPPENSBURG, Pa. — To celebrate, Dom Perretta was going to binge. He was going to dig into something he rarely allows himself to eat during track season.
Ice cream. Chocolate.
“Three bowls,” Perretta said. “With a lot whipped cream.”
And the cherry on top was a PIAA record.
Perretta, a senior at Beaver Falls High School, ran his way into the PIAA record books Saturday and did it in grand fashion. And it brought The Dominator to tears.
They have been staging PIAA track and field championships since 1925 and Perretta is the first athlete in the 91-year history of the event to win the 800- and 1,600-meter runs three consecutive years. He won the 1,600 early Saturday afternoon on the final day of the PIAA championships at Shippensburg University. An hour-and-a-half later, he won the 800 and broke a 29-year-old record in the process.
Perretta ran 1 minute, 50.10 seconds, breaking the mark of 1:51.96, set by legendary runner Paul Vandergrift of Archbishop Kennedy in 1987. Moments after the race, as Perretta was walking off the track, he put his hands over his head and started crying while accepting congratulations from other runners.
“It was my last high school race and I finally broke the record,” Perretta said. “Literally, every day that I’ve run and practiced was for that record. Then to win two gold medals again, I just started thinking and crying.”
Perretta thanked Harbor Creek’s Dan Kuhn for helping him break the record. Kuhn ran the first lap of the race ahead of the pack, pushing Perretta. Kuhn finished sixth.
“I have to congratulate and thank him because without him, I probably woudn’t have broken the record,” said the 5-foot-10, 145-pound Perretta. “To go out on the first lap, he pushed me. He made the race what it was. Without him, I probably would’ve ran maybe a 1:52.”
In the 1,600, Perretta was second after the first two laps, but took over first for the bell lap. Near the 100-meter mark, Perretta peaked over his shoulder and saw a runner closing within 5 meters. Perretta then shifted into another gear and easily won by almost two seconds.
Perretta will run next season at Penn State and he leaves behind a legacy in the state.
“That 800 record, someone is going break that. I’m not going to have that forever,” Perretta said. “But two events, three years in a row … That’s going to be hard to break. I don’t know if anybody knows how hard that is. To get two [gold] medals as a sophomore is really tough. Then to have the target on your back after that, and every race everyone wants to beat you.”
But at the PIAA level, everyone failed — three consecutive years.
First Published: May 29, 2016, 4:00 a.m.
