SHIPPENSBURG – Pittston Area senior Aria Messner made it to the state medal stand for the first time on her last try.
The nine-time District 2 gold medalist placed fourth in the Class 3A girls triple jump Saturday afternoon in the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association Track and Field Championships at Shippensburg University.
Messner came to Shippensburg as a qualifier in the maximum four events after missing last year’s meet because of an injury. The state medal came in the last of those events.
A jump of 18-6¾ on her second attempt earned that spot. Messner broke once and went at least 18 feet on four of her other five tries, but was unable to duplicate last week’s District 2 record-setting and career-best leap of 19-2½.
Jaylyn Dorsey from Susquehanna Township won with a jump of 19-0¾.
Methacton’s Summer Mellow was second with 18-10¼ and Central Mountain’s Lily Hendricks used her final attempt to pass Messner into third place at 18-8¾.
Earlier Saturday, Messner tied for 14th out of 28 competitors in the high jump by clearing 5-2. District 2 champion Grayce Grazio from Crestwood finished third in the event for the second straight year with a height of 5-6.
Messner also competed twice Friday, but was unable to advance from preliminaries to finals on the track. She was 24th of 30 in the 100-meter dash with a time of 12.46 seconds.
Annika Lien, Jenna Grieco, Ali Butcher and Messner finished 28th of 35 in the 400 relay in 49.66 seconds.
Wyoming Area’s Ella McKernan just missed making the final in the 300 hurdles. She placed 11th out of 30 hurdlers, posting a time of 45.01 and missing by 21-hundredths of a second of making it among the eight finalists.
McKernan then placed 12th out of 32 Saturday in the 800 run in 2:16.21.
Pittston Area’s Preston Klem took 24th out of 31 in the boys 800 with a time of 2:01.02.
Pittston Area was last in a 31-team field in the Class 3A boys 3200-meter relay in 9:14.08.