There are a lot of positives about the race Parkland’s boys 3200-meter relay team ran at last week’s District 11 Championship Meet.

For one thing, the team earned the gold medal with a winning time of 8:08.24. On top of that, the group knows it can run even faster in this weekend’s PIAA Class 3A Championship at Shippensburg University.

“It was just a good team effort all around,” said sophomore Riley Williamson. “We all knew what we had to do and we all did it. We didn’t all run our best time, but we did what we had to do to win.”

Williamson led off the race and handed the baton to Bar Maymon, who joined the 3200-meter relay team late in the season. Jacob Ringer took the third leg and Sam Morgan brought the team home.

“We ran fast enough to win,” said Ringer, adding that the only thing the team needs to go even faster next week is “just someone to push us.”

While the relay was Parkland’s only gold medalist at this year’s district meet, held May 16-17 at Blue Mountain High School, several other medal winners and state qualifiers emerged from the meet. The top two finishers in each event as well as those who meet state qualification standards earn a trip to states.

Morgan Sherwin is heading back to states after earning a medal for eighth place at last year’s state meet.

Sherwin cleared 5 feet, 3 inches last week for second place in the high jump.

“I could have jumped better,” said Sherwin, who was seeded at 5-5. “But I got the state qualifying so it’s good.”

Sherwin cleared 5-4 last year at states.

Connor Tempro is also returning to states after placing second in the 400-meter dash in 50.05 seconds. A senior, Tempro will finish his high school career on the biggest stage his sport has to offer.

“I just went for it today,” he said. “It’s like going full circle. You come in as a freshman and you just go and don’t know what you’re doing. You spend the next two years learning and perfecting. You come down to today and you just go.”

Tempro ran a 50.55 for 20th place at states last season. That was his career best time until shaving half a second last week. Last year was his first trip to states. He looks forward to being more familiar with the terrain this year.

“There’s not going to be nerves this time,” Tempro said. “The wall of fans is ridiculous. Now I’m going back and I know what I need to do. It will be a lot more fun.”

Grace Reed will make her first trip to states after taking second place in the 100-meter hurdles.

Reed, a senior, won a league title last week and ran the top time in the preliminary heats at districts. She finished the final 15.78 for the silver medal.

Last year anything under 16 seconds was good enough to get to semifinals, where the top eight all ran under 15 seconds to reach finals.

Ringer was the only Parkland athlete to qualify for two events at states. He made it for the relay and the individual 800-meter run.

Ringer made a late kick to finish in second place in the 800 in 1:58.59.

Parkland’s Julian Colon earned a pair of league medals with a third-place finish in the 100 (11.29) and a fourth-place finish in the 200 (22.61).

Grace Steurer stood on the medal stand with Sherwin after taking fourth place in high jump at 4-9. Franco Perinotti earned a medal for finishing fourth in pole vault at 12-9.

Other Parkland athletes to finish in the top 10 at district were Shelby Staib (fifth in javelin at 112-3; ninth in triple jump at 35-2), Andrew Lessig (fifth in discus at 136-2), Williamson (sixth in 800 at 1:59.38), Nicholas Bower (sixth in 3200 at 9:54.05), Emily Willcox (seventh in 400 at 1:01.21), Christine Hutchinson (seventh in 300 hurdles in 49.22), Ellie Baldo (eight in high jump at 4-9), Kiaeem Comegys (eighth in high jump at 5-11), Hailemichael Geiger (ninth in 1600 in 4:35.43; ninth in 3200 in 10:01.91) and Paige Konsko (ninth in discus at 95-6).

Parkland’s relay teams all finished well within the top 10 at districts.

The girls 400-meter relay was sixth at 51.50. The boys 4x100 was fifth at 43.82. Parkland girls 1600-meter relay team took fifth place at the meet in 4:06.74. The boys 4x400 finished fifth at 3:29.33. Parkland’s girls 3200-meter relay placed sixth in 9:51.52.