The Stateliner senior just missed a gold medal and school record.
Cooper Bertoldo came oh-so-close to a repeat of his Group 4 heroics in the pole vault.
With the bar set at 15 feet, the Phillipsburg senior faced the final jump of the competition at Saturday’s NJSIAA Meet of Champions at Northern Burlington in the exact same situation he faced last week at the group meet.
Clear the bar, at a height Bertoldo had never cleared before, and be a champion. Don’t, and settle for something other than first.
And did we mention 15 feet is also the Stateliner school record?
So, with another storybook finish looming, Bertoldo almost delivered.
“That was the closest to making a vault that I have ever had,” he said. “Everyone cheered when I went over the bar – but I hit it on the way down.”
As the bar fell, so did Bertoldo’s Meet of Champs hopes as he came in second at 14-6 to Demarest’s Jason Mezhibovsky; Bertoldo had one more miss than the winner.
“I have to admit missing the last vault is going to bother me for a while,” he said. “It bothers me because my goal today wasn’t really to win the Meet of Champions; I am a state champion already. I wanted the school record. I wanted to (at least) tie the (late) Matt Deery’s school record. But that’s OK. If I can’t get the record, there’s no one it should be other than Matt.”
Deery, a 2011 Phillipsburg graduate who commanded enormous respect from all who knew him, died at 19 in an automobile accident in 2012.
Bertoldo did have last week's remarkable finish in mind Saturday.
“Since I was seeded first I had the last try, so I could see what I needed to do on very jump, and I really liked that," he said. "I tried to think just like that this week."
Bertoldo will leave Phillipsburg as a Group 4 champion and No. 2 all-time in the pole vault.
“It’s great to follow in Matt’s and (2014 grad) Kiyair Lambert’s footsteps as a Group 4 champion,” he said.
And he paid tribute to a man he said made it possible.
“I couldn’t ask for a better coach than (Stateliner assistant) Joe Donahue to work with me,” Bertoldo said. “It’s like he was actually doing the event with me.”
Brad Wilson may be reached at bwilson@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @bradwsports. Find Lehigh Valley high school sports on Facebook.