With the softball team at home, battling through district play, four members of the track team traveled to Shippensburg University for the PIAA Championships on Friday and Saturday, May 26-27 and rose to the occasion. Katie Urbine captured the 3A pole vault championship Friday morning and also set a new state record. She was the only competitor to clear 13-9 and in doing so, bettered the previous mark of 13-3 set in 2018 by Manheim Township's Mackenzie Horn.

Last year Urbine finished in second place on misses. Veronica Vacca of Mount Saint Joseph, a Philly Jumps Club teammate of Urbine's, also cleared 13 feet, and grabbed gold.

"Katie was perfect through all her jumps until 13 feet," said head coach Jen McDowell. "She had stopped when running down the runway due to a strong wind, but the official claimed she broke the plane. She cleared it on the next jump. Overall, her jumps were great," she added. "She had two fantastic attempts at 14 feet, like at districts. She will clear that height soon."

Urbine is a two-time league champ, a two-time district champ, two-time state indoor champ and now a state champion, Solanco's first since Cliff Wimer claimed gold in 1975 with the fastest mile run.

Soon after she grabbed gold, she joined Oli Oravitz, Sarah Bard, and Emma Housekeeper in the 4x100 relay. The four-some broke their own school record in 48.77 seconds.

"The girls broke the record set last year at a dual meet, then again at leagues and finally at states," recalled McDowell. "Last year's team was Katie, Oli, Emma, and Carly Rose.

"They were seeded 16th and finished 10th," praised McDowell. "This team was amazing to watch. They work so well together and have worked hard to accomplish their goal of states. With three girls returning, we will work on finding a fourth girl and hope to get back to states again next year.

SOFTBALL

With a berth in the District Three 5A finals on the line, top seed Solanco (22-2) hosted Northern York (19-4) Tuesday, May 30 in the semifinals. The Polar Bears, who advanced with a crushing 11-0 shutout over Donegal (No. 4) in the quarterfinals, jumped out to a 2-0 lead and never trailed. Solanco struggled to put all facets of the game together and, despite a late rally, fell 7-4.

The visitors connected for a pair of one-out base hits in the first inning before Anna Sexton struck out the No. 4 hitter and Polar Bear pitcher Sammy Magee. An untimely error and another base hit put the visitors in front 2-0 early.

A run scoring triple made it 3-0 in the third and a triple, aided by an error, made it 4-0 in the top of the fifth. Solanco struck out eight times to that point and left five runners on base. But in the bottom of the fifth, they made their move. Kira Roark drew a leadoff walk and Josie Janssen singled before NY turned to relief pitcher Grace Singer. Holly Grube's ground out moved Roark to third and Sara DeFrancesco's hard single to left field was misplayed, allowing two runs to score. Delaney Gote's base hit made it 4-3.

Just as quickly, the Bears responded with two in the top of the sixth due to a series of unfortunate events. Sexton took a hard shot off the leg for a base hit and a second hit, an infield single followed. Magee lined a shot at Roark at third and after a scramble the bases were loaded setting the stage for a two-run error and all the momentum Northern York needed.

"We were way too generous at times," said head coach Brett Miller. "You have to make the plays. Anna pitched well enough to win but you can't give a team four and five outs. I think they had one, maybe two earned runs."

The visitors scored one more in the seventh, thanks to two more errors. Solanco looked to break things open in the bottom half, but their rally was cut short. Janssen opened with a base hit and took second on an error. Sexton walked with two outs and another Gote base hit made it 7-4. Ava Fedoruk's single loaded the bags, but a bases-loaded strikeout moved Solanco into the consolation bracket.

"I thought their first pitcher threw well and took advantage of the strike zone she was given," said Miller. "We have to know the strike zone and be able to adjust. We seem to find ways, at times, to make the game more interesting. But these are experiences and we're still a young squad (one senior starter, four freshmen, two sophomores, three juniors). This isn't travel ball, it's not rec ball or summer ball. There is no next weekend," he added. "Practice goes a long way, and we need to transfer that to the field. And now we look to win that third seed game so we can play closer to home."

Solanco advanced to the semifinals with a 4-1 quarterfinals win over visiting Ephrata Thursday, May 25. It was the fourth meeting between the two squads and the most important.

Roark gave the home team some early momentum, ripping her first home run of the season to left field.

Not to be out done, Ephrata managed to tie the score at 1-1 with a homer to center field in the third inning. Solanco responded in the bottom half. Ava Martin opened with a base hit, took second on an error and moved to third on Janssen's sacrifice before scoring on a wild pitch.

Ephrata was poised to go back in front one inning later. With runners on first and third, and with one out, the Mounts No. 6 hitter smacked a fly ball to Martin who made the catch in left field and fired to Olivia Musser at first for a double play.

Solanco left the bases loaded in the fourth but extended their lead in the fifth. Janssen and Grube both reached on errors and Janssen scored on DeFrancesco's sac fly. Sexton reached on an error that allowed Grube to score the second unearned run of the inning.

"It's definitely a challenge to play the same team four times," said Miller. "Their pitcher threw her best game this time but we responded with some timely hitting. Anna is throwing very well right now and you expect that from a senior. She's playing like it's her last time."

Sexton scattered five hits, struck out eight and did not give a single walk.