District 3 track: A

Medalists were determined in half of the field events and the 3,200-meter run Friday at the District 3 track and field championships at Shippensburg University.

Prelims and semis were contested in sprints and 100/110 hurdles to determine the competitors for Saturday's finals.

Here is a look at some of the highlights involving Lebanon County athletes from Day 1 of the championships:

Annville-Cleona's Noah Gunderson has been dealing with a nagging hamstring injury since the beginning of the season. So hitting 6-7 was a bit of a surprise.

"I did not think it would happen today, but I'm happy it did," he said. "It's one of my last events ever and to be able to PR, it's really important to me."

Gunderson missed his first attempt at 5-11, and it appeared his hamstring was causing him problems. He made his second attempt, and it was smooth sailing from there until he reached 6-5. It took all three attempts to hit 6-5 and 6-7, and he missed at 6-8.

"I'm pumped. I did better than I did last year, and that's all you can ask for," he said. "I don't know how I did that with a hurt leg, but I did. It was always a hope, but I never thought I'd get to that point, and I'm just thrilled that I did."

Gunderson's closest competitors were eliminated after missing three attempts at 6-3.

Elco's Carissa Bender was very emphatic as she cleared 12 feet in the pole vault and landed safely on the pad.

"Yes," she yelled and threw her hands in the air.

It was the third time in a week the senior hit 12 feet, but this one earned her a District 3 Class 2A silver medal and a trip to next week's state meet. She finished second to Solanco's Katie Urbine, who set a district record at 13-8. Urbine missed on three attempts at 14-0.

"She pushes me to be better," Bender said of Urbine. "We have known each other for a long time and always face each other."

Bender missed on three attempts at 12-6, but said her third try was close enough to clearing that she has confidence she can hit it in the future.

Bender wasn't the only Lebanon County jumper on the pole vault podium. Teammate Jacey Hentz finished fifth, and Palmyra's Kaylie Groff was tied for sixth.

"I didn't expect to match my PR," Hentz said of hitting 11-6. "I hit it the first time in the second meet of the season, but then sprained my wrist two weeks later. And then I sprained my ankle."

Hentz said she had a great practice on Wednesday and saw herself hitting 11-6.

"I knew I could do it."

As the girls' Class 3A 3,200 medalists were announced, it was apparent that there was a lot of red near the top of the podium. And that's because Annville-Cleona made up 75 percent of the top four.

Mackenzie Stellmach, Noryan Mitchell and Emily Maag took second, third and fourth, respectively, in the 3,200, a more than ideal result for the teammates.

"All of our hard work went into this one moment so it feels really good to do well in this race," Stellmach said.

In the heat of a two-mile race, you don't really notice who's around you, but as they approached the finish line, the crowd made them wonder just how close they were to each other.

"Everyone yells their names all at once so you don't know where people are behind you or in front of you," Stellmach said. "So you hear people cheering for your teammates and think, 'How close are they?'"

One thing that is clear when talking to them is that they have a very positive outlook, and that approach carried them through this race.

"We definitely worked for it. You have to have that mindset when you're running. You have to stay positive," Maag said. "If you're mindset is weak then you're going to run bad."

That positivity is what makes this performance even more special, as they get to enjoy this performance together.

"We are so close and we love each other's energy," Mitchell said. "We bring so much positivity to each other. We knew we were going to do well today, but the fact that we went two-three-four is so crazy."

Prelims and semifinals of the 100m dash, 200m dash and 100/110m hurdles took place on Friday, with five Lebanon County athletes doing well enough to earn spots into Saturday's finals.