Massive breakthrough race Friday night for Haddon Township graduate Luke Petela, now racing for Moody Park Track Club.
Petela placed 3rd in the 1,500 “B race” at Track Night NYC at Icahn Stadium on Randall’s Island in Manhattan in 3:46.51.
That’s a drop of nearly 10 seconds from his 1,500 PR of 3:56.30 from 2015 New Balance Nationals at the Armory. It’s the equivalent of a 4:04.63 full mile, which is also well below his PR of 4:08.63 from a meet at the Tatnal School in Wilmington, Del., last month.
Petela finished behind only Benjamin Ross [3:44.87] and former Princeton runner Sebastian Fisher [3:46.38].
Petela came through 300 meters in 46.45 and then ripped off his quarters in 60.08, 60.24 and 59.76, so he was very close to sub-4 pace over the last 1,200 [4:00.11 to be precise].
Petela was the Meet of Champions 3,200 champion in the spring of 2015 with an 8:58.32 at South Plainfield and then ran for Vermont up through the 2020 indoor season.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 
Also worth noting that fellow Haddon Twp grad Jake Dinerman set a pr of 3:48.80 in the same race, an improvement over his 3:51 set back in 2018, and also an improvement on the 4:08 that he ran at the same Tatnall meet as Petela.
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