She knew she could run better and she knew she could be at the top of the podium with a gold medal draped around her neck. The bottom of the podium isn’t anyone’s favorite spot to be, and Temple wanted to higher.

A lot higher up in fact.

“Last year was like … not a revenge (tour), but I wanted to get better than I had the previous year and show everyone what I could do,” Temple said.

She showed everyone in attendance at Shippensburg what she could do and that’s be the best 300 hurdler in Pennsylvania in Class AA competition.

CHRIS MANNING/Sun-Gazette Correspondent Hughesville's Kylie Temple runs in the girls Class AA 300 hurdles on Saturday at Shippensburg. Temple won gold, her first career state title.

Temple ran a time of 43.45 to win her first-ever gold medal in the girls Class AA 300 hurdles event and PR’d in the process. As soon as Temple received her gold medal on the podium, she beamed a smile ear to ear that didn’t fade the rest of the afternoon.

“It’s so exciting. Coming in here, I knew I was ranked first, but I knew I would need to put it all out on the track. These girls ran so well, it was such a good race. It’s just so exciting,” Temple said. “I was really happy. I knew coming into the beginning of the season this year that was the main goal this season, but it’s just so exciting and so energizing to be able to do it.”

Temple had extremely stiff competition in the 300 hurdles with some outstanding runners. That included standouts such as Redbank Valley’s Mylee Harmon, Greenwood’s Rebekah Brinser, Brookille’s Hannah Geer and Sharon’s Ondrea Young. Temple, Harmon and Brinser were all close together at the start of the race, but once that trio reached the turn, Temple turned the jets on.

She started slowly pulling away from Harmon and once she reached the final few hurdles, the race belonged to the Spartan and she was determined to secure her first gold medal.

“Coming around the corner the girl beside me was right on my hip, I knew we were neck and neck there I just told myself ‘if I can get over the next one before her, then I can get over the next one before her and one after that,'” Temple said. “I knew I needed to pull away from her and I would be good.”

Temple led Harmon by a decent amount after the second-to-last hurdle and had the race won from there as she didn’t let up.

Having someone like Harmon or Brinser on her tail though did push Temple to reach her PR.

“It was nervous, but it was more of an excited nervous like ‘oh OK, we’re both going to be in this. This is going to be a fun finish to this race,'” the Spartan said.

Temple admitted she felt relieved once she cleared the final hurdle and reached the finish line.

“I couldn’t believe I just ran that,” Temple said.

It wasn’t until Brinser told her after the race that she ran a 43 that Temple even realized she recorded a PR.

“I was so overwhelmed and it was so exciting,” Temple said.

The Spartan was the only runner in the event to break the 44-second barrier as she ran her 43.45. Harmon took second in 44.15 and Brinser was third in 45.42. Geer took fourth (46.70) and Young was fifth (46.74).

Last year’s eighth-place finish was motivation all year for Temple to get back to states and prove that she’s among the state’s best hurdlers and she did exactly that on a chilly Saturday in Shippensburg.

“I knew at the end of last season that the end of my junior year I really just wanted to be wearing the gold around my neck instead of an eighth-place medal,” Temple said. “There was just great competition pushing me this year and that helped me get here.”

And it’s giving Temple plenty of motivation and confidence for 2026.

“I did that this year and hopefully I can do it again and PR again next year,” Temple said.