The goal was to stand at the top of the podium with district gold, a feat Ryan Paradise and Greg Jaindl haven’t reached as part of the 3,200-meter relay team throughout their high school career. And while their medals were silver, not gold, Emmaus’ foursome in the 3,200 relay team is heading to states.

Along with Paradise and Jaindl, senior Jacob Feiertag and junior Kyle Kleinber led the 3200 relay team to a second place finish at last week’s District 11 Class 3A Track and Field Championships in 8:06.76. That finish, just .70 seconds off champion Parkland, earned them a trip to Shippensburg University for this week’s state meet.

“We really wanted a gold medal,” Jaindl said. “Ryan and I have been running this since our sophomore year together, and we never got gold.

“Jake got us out to a strong start,” said Paradise. “Wnd we have him first because he’s a big guy and he can get out of bad situations with his big body. I just tried to get the biggest lead I possibly could.”

Feiertag got the Hornets out to a solid start near the front of the pack, and Jaindl, the anchor, even held the lead with about 200 meters to go. But Parkland anchor Sam Morgan had a kick that couldn’t be matched as he sent the Trojans to states with gold.

“Coming down the last 200, I passed Parkland and I thought I had him,” Jaindl said. “He had a good move to come back. All in all it was a really fun race. We still get to states in second place, so that’s really exciting.”

That group also set a season best time by nine seconds.

The boys 3200 relay team nearly captured Emmaus’ only gold medal of the two-day championships at the Zephyrs Sports Complex, but they’re not the only ones that qualified for states. The girls’ 3,200 relay team will join the boys’ foursome in Shippensburg for their run at state hardware as well.

Led by anchor Katie Bacher and joined by the trio of Sophie Pickering, Katrina Durrwachter and Abby Dalton, the Hornet foursome ran a 9:28.04 to earn silver. Liberty’s group was the only one that finished ahead of Emmaus, edging out the Hornets by 1.64 seconds.

In individual events, Paradise placed fourth in the 1,600-meter run in 4:27.83; Jaindl ran the 800 meter run in 2:00.49 for fifth place. Bacher led the girls by placing fourth in the 1,600 (5:12.74) and sixth in the 800 (2:20.85).

“I was hoping for a little bit better; I wanted to qualify individually as well,” Jaindl said. “But the race was different than it’s been all season.”

Placing as high as the Hornets possibly can will be the goal at states this weekend. But that group of four boys, in particular, has even higher aspirations. They’ll look to break the school record, one currently set in 2014 by Jordan Frank, Kevin Waterman, Jaindl and Paradise.

Prelims are set for Friday at 9 a.m., the first event of the day. Should the Hornets advance to the finals round on Saturday, they’ll run at 11 a.m. on the following day.