Tyler Petty holds off several other contenders on his way to winning the District 2 Class 3A 800-meter title.
                                 Zachary Allen | Abington Journal

Tyler Petty holds off several other contenders on his way to winning the District 2 Class 3A 800-meter title.

Zachary Allen | Abington Journal

MOSCOW – Tyler Petty from Abington Heights took the lead midway through the second lap, then held off a series of challengers May 18 to win the 800-meter run title at the District 2 Class 3A Track and Field Championships at North Pocono.

Petty finished first in 1:58.65, just under a second ahead of Michael McCann from Dallas in a race where the top four finished within 2.19 seconds of each other.

“I came into the race knowing that the competition was tight,” Petty said. “The top six kids were all very good.

“Three other kids came out that I wasn’t expecting. I was a close one all the way around and I just knew I had to turn over at about 250 meters and try to pull away from the group. It was just enough to hold them off.”

Petty landed the only district title and only state meet berth for Abington Heights, boys or girls.

“I felt great,” Petty said. “But, I knew somebody was right behind me because the yelling got louder and louder.

“I just didn’t want to give it up.”

Petty led the Comets to a seventh-place finish out of 18 teams with 34 points.

Abington Heights finished second in both the 1600 and 3200 relays.

James Reese was third in the pole vault.

State meet

SHIPPENSBURG – Petty finished 20th out of 26 in the 800 during the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association Class 3A Championships May 29 at Shippensburg University.

Petty finished in 2:00.96.

LTC

Abington Heights finished second in Division 1 of the Lackawanna Track Conference, securing that spot with an 83-67 victory over Scranton Prep in the final meet of the regular season.

Christian Lezinski led the way, winning the shot put and discus.