Spring Grove's Ella Bahn snares silver, 2 golds in Day 2 action at PIAA championships

Spring Grove's Ella Bahn packed a lot of action into a short time on Saturday.

In little more than six hours, the sophomore defended her PIAA Class 3A 300 hurdles title, won the high jump and finished second in the 100 hurdles at Shippensburg University.

After back-to-back days when the temperature was in the mid-80s and humidity was inching over the 50-percent mark, Bahn was understandably tired at the end of her day on Saturday. But she was looking forward to a relaxing evening spent with her friends and family.

"I'm looking forward to being done," she said.

Bahn spent her first 50 minutes of Saturday in the high jump pit, where she was the second seed at her District 3 winning jump of 5-6. In between clearing 5-0 and 5-2, she stretched, did some work with the hurdle that was situated just outside the high jump area and worked on her starts.

The first call for the 100 hurdles final came at 9:45 a.m. She cleared 5-2 less than 10 minutes later and headed to the starter's tent.

By 10:08 she had won her silver medal.

Bahn was the third seed after running a 14.17 in Friday's prelims, just .01 behind a pair of 14.16 times. She won the silver medal in 14.27 and headed back to high jump to finish that event.

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She cleared 5-7 and sat in the shade of an umbrella as her last two opponents missed. She missed three attempts at 5-8, but 5-7 was good for the state gold.

"I kind of thought [5-7] could [win the state title] because I saw the top seed was 5-7," Bahn said. "But then I saw her jump. And I was pretty sure I could win it with like a 5-7 or 5-8."

Bahn said winning silver and then gold really helped to build her confidence going into the 300 hurdles, and it turned out she needed every bit of good luck she could get.

Spending most of the day in the broiling sun with only a large umbrella to provide shade during the high jump, Bahn admitted she wasn't feeling her best going into the grueling 300 hurdles. She had almost three hours of sitting around between winning the high jump and the start of the hurdles.

"Once I got on the line, I felt better," she said. "Maybe it was nerves or something."

Bahn and Oxford Area's Macaela Walker ran the same prelim time in different heats ... 42.78 to put them side by side in the final. Bahn had a slight advantage coming into the straightaway, but Walker closed fast, and they were running step for step to and through the second-to-last hurdle.

Walker seemed to struggle in that hurdle and was off her stride enough to clip the final hurdle and nearly take out Bahn as she tumbled across track into the next lane.

"I saw it just out of the corner of my eye, and then I could feel her behind me," Bahn said. "I hope I didn't kick her, but she was right there."

Bahn knew it was going to be a close finish after Walker caught her in the last 100. The Spring Grove sophomore depends on her endurance from distance running (she runs cross country in the fall) to give her extra strength for a late kick.

Walker ended up eighth in 48.03.

Even though her competition was finished for the meet, Bahn wasn't finished collecting hardware. Her two golds and silver earned Spring Grove 28 points. Combined with teammate Laila Campbell's 18 points on a gold and silver, the pair scored 46 points and won the team title by 13 points.

Bahn will get a bit of a break before she heads to Nike nationals in Oregon to compete in the high jump and 400 hurdles. The 400 hurdles? One hundred meters beyond the already grueling 300?

"I'm excited, really excited," she said. "I ran them one time last summer, but it wasn't a very well-organized meet. The last set of hurdles before the straightaway, they forgot to switch it from boys' height. I don't remember what my time was, but it was fun."

This article originally appeared on York Daily Record: Spring Grove's Ella Bahn snares silver, 2 golds at PIAA championships