Each year over Memorial Day Weekend the best of the best high school track and field athletes in the state of Pennsylvania compete at the annual PIAA Championship Meet at Shippensburg University.

The Emmaus girls 3200-meter relay team earned a place in the meet for the second straight season.

The foursome of Katrina Durrwachter, Abby Dalton, Sophie Pickering and Abby Heilenman ran to 12th place in their heat at states, finishing in 9:54.09 and 23rd place overall.

“I’m so glad to be in this group,” said Dalton, who runs the anchor leg of the race. “It was extremely exciting. Even though the race wasn’t going exactly as we planned, I’m so glad to be here and I was just excited to run my leg and cheer the rest of the team on. It’s definitely something I’ll remember.”

The team got to states by running a 9:28.82 for second place at districts. That time was also six seconds better than the 9:36.84 the group ran at leagues for first place. Both were the fastest time they had run all season.

Three members of the team were at states last year and were happy to have that experience when they returned this year.

“This year we sort of knew what to expect,” said Durrwachter, the only senior on the relay team. “We were more comfortable. We didn’t really have anything riding on this so we just wanted to have some fun with it and see what we could do.”

“Just getting here,” said Pickering, “and getting to spend the weekend with our whole team all together is a great experience. We were really excited to be back and wanted to give it our best try.”

Heilenman, a sophomore who was not part of last year’s state team, looks forward to returning next season.

“Its really motivating and it makes you want to work harder to come back next year,” said Heilenman.

Durrwachter was happy to get back a second time. While she earned a medal in her junior year, this year’s trip might have been nearly as fulfilling as it kept her final high school track and field season alive one more week.

“Once you get to the postseason you get this feeling like every race could be your last,” she said. “Doing well at districts and getting to come here was really nice. Especially because all of these girls are really talented.

“It’s a great way to cap off a good run. I’ve been running with these girls forever. The four of us knew we were going to be the 4x800 this year. We’ve grown a lot.”