Alonso’s Petion, Mosely, sign with USF

Posted Aug 16, 2011 by Bill Ward

Updated Aug 17, 2011 at 01:22 AM

Alonso products Gigi Petion and Franklin Mosely, who both earned first team all-Hillsborough County track and field honors from the Tampa Tribune last spring, have signed National Letters of Intent with the University of South Florida, Ravens track coach Roger Mills announced Tuesday.

Mills said Petion and Mosely are the first two Alonso graduates to sign track and field scholarships straight out of high school.

“Obviously, we’re very happy for Franklin and Gigi because they’ve worked extremely hard for this opportunity,” Mills said. “With so much attention paid to an elite sprinter like (Alonso senior) Brandon (Holloway). it’s proof there’s more to a track team than one guy. These signings validate track and field in Hillsborough County and they validate our program.

“When we started here at Alonso, we wanted to prove to kids that you can get track and field scholarships. This is a major step for our program.”

Petion was the county’s top high jumper last spring, clearing 6 feet, 8 inches twice before his season ended in the district meet with a ligament strain in his knee suffered while triple jumping. Mosely was No. 1 in the county for the 400-meter dash and went undefeated in the event until the Class 4A state finals, where he took fourth behind two of the nation’s fastest quarter milers, Arman Hall of Fort Lauderdale St. Thomas Aquinas and Hugh Graham, Jr., of Miami Northwestern. Mosely’s personal best of 48.18 seconds for the 400 came at the state meet.

Petion says at the time of his knee injury, he thought his track career was over. But the knee didn’t require surgery and four months later, he’s nearly 100 percent again.

“I’m happy to sign with USF because it’s close to my parents and I think it’s a program on the rise,” Petion said. “But I’m really happy about just being able to continue competing in college. When I hurt my knee, I really thought I was done and this day wouldn’t come. But now it has and I look forward to jumping there at USF.”