SHIPPENSBURG — When she stepped off the podium at Shippensburg after receiving her medal for the Class AA girls 300 hurdles race, Hughesville’s Kylie Temple’s smile slowly started to fade. She was happy to be receiving a medal, but it wasn’t what she had ultimately hoped for.

Coming into Saturday’s PIAA track and field championships at Shippensburg, Temple was the defending state champion in the 300 hurdles and had expectations to repeat and defend her title in her final individual race of her career. Instead, she took home a silver medal, losing an unbelievably close race down the stretch to Wyomissing Area’s Lily Paolini. The Wyomissing sprinter won in 43.62, beating Temple by just 0.04 seconds.

“I am still happy knowing that I put a lot of events on myself in two days. I did know I hoped this was my proudest accomplishment, and it definitely isn’t from this meet,” Temple said. “I am proud of coming out and still running an alright time. Not what I was looking for, but I cant change a thing now.”

Temple showed sportsmanship after the 300 hurdles race though. Standing at the finish line, she hugged Paolini after the great race and still smiled on the podium as fans and others took photos of the top eight finishers.

Temple gave it her all against Paolini, but simply couldn’t catch her in the final second.

“I knew she got out really fast, she got away from me a little bit,” Temple said. “I knew I could close the gap down the home stretch and I did that, but just kind of ran out of race.”

Temple ends her career as Hughesville’s only athlete with three or more career gold medals as she claimed two golds this year in relay competition in addition to her 300 hurdles title last spring.

In the end, Temple noted that she felt pressure from others. There was the expectation and pressure of being anticipated to win a repeat title. It got in her head and felt like a bit of a weight as she got to Shippensburg.

“I feel like this was the most of the weight that I had on me. Obviously putting a lot of pressure on me because I’m the returning state champion,” Temple said. “It did put a little pressure on me. I wasn’t really excited for it all and I think I let it get to my head a little bit, but I do think I pushed through it pretty well and tried to erase it from my mind a little bit. I am proud of myself for still getting there with all of that.”

And Hughesville fans are more than proud of Temple.

SISTERLY LOVE

Hughesville’s Kylie and Katelyn Temple got to share one final state track meet together on Saturday. Kylie is graduating, meaning this was the Temple sisters final go together at Shippensburg, and they certainly made the most of it.

Kylie ended her final state meet with four medals — two relay golds, a relay silver and a silver in the 300 hurdles. For Katelyn, she brought home two relay gold medals, a relay silver medal and a sixth-place finish in the 400.

Hopefully there’s plenty of space at the Temple household to hold the eight medals they brought home this year.

“It’s amazing, but that doesn’t all go to me,” Katelyn said. “We had three other people on the relays, and I think that really helps push me and everyone on the team as well.”

“I really think coming out of here with four medals is really cool. Obviously not the expected outcomes we were hoping for (in the girls 1,600 relay), but to come here and come home with four state medals? It’s just a really big accomplishment that I think we all have,” Kylie said. “A lot of our kids on the relays are on multiple relays and run other events. I’m so proud of how far we’ve been able to push each other and work with each other. Just being able to be in the positions we have with so many different athletes is just a really cool thing to see.”

While Kylie is Hughesville’s first-ever three-time staet champion (300 hurdles, 3,200 relay and 400 relay), Katelyn is right behind her sister thanks to running both relays as well with two career golds.

SPARTY PARTY

It was a banner day for Hughesville boys and girls track and field teams.

The Spartan girls claimed two gold medals in relay competition by winning the 3,200 and 400 relays and were less than half a second from winning gold in the 1,600 as they ended up taking silver. On the boys side, Hughesville’s 3,200 relay team claimed a gold medal as well less than half an hour after the Spartan girls did so, and the boys 1,600 relay team took home an eighth-place finish.

Add in a number of individual medals for the Hughesville girls — Kylie Temple in the 300 hurdles, Katelyn Temple in the 400 — and boys — Tyce Shaner in the 800 and 1,600, Spencer Stine in the 100 — and it was a great day for the Hughesville fans in attendance who sat through the rain and cold.

“It’s actually really nice because not a lot of people know about the district so to have a big showing here, we got all the boys and girls relays here,” Katelyn Temple said. “Its just a really good achievement for our district.”

Carter Sherwood, a member of the boys 3,200 relay team which won gold, attributed a lot of success from coach Griffin Molino.

“He’s such a good coach. He knows exactly how much he needs to push everybody,” Sherwood noted. “He believes all of us more than we believe in ourselves sometimes. That allows all of our teams to compete as well as we do at this high level. It all comes down to him really.”

NEVER TOO LATE

Lewisburg’s Lydia Delsite entered the state meet this year as a senior and one thing was missing from her resume: a state track and field podium trip. She had medaled in indoor competition, but never at Shippensburg among the state’s best.

That all changed late Saturday afternoon.

Delsite competed in the Class AA triple jump and took home a sixth-place finish, the first medal of her career before she heads to Penn State to compete with teammates Teagan Osunde and Baylee Espinosa next year.

“It’s great. I’ve never gotten a medal at states, so I’m very happy about it,” Delsite said. “Taking sixth is very good, even with this crappy weather.”

The rain played a factor in the triple jump on Saturday, making the landing pit in the sand mushy and somewhat harder than normal.

“I would say a good bit because I can barely feel my legs,” Delsite said with a laugh. “I’m still happy I jumped in the 37s even though I fouled a few, which sucked, but with this rain and everything? I’m just happy I even got to place.”

Delsite took sixth by jumping 37 feet, 1 1/2 inches. Mid Valley’s Olivia Thomas won gold by jumping 39-11 1/2 and Milena Sciullo of Grove City Area took silver by leaping 39-4 1/2. Kutztown’s Clara Engel jumped 38-11 1/4.

“I think it pushed me a lot, especially when there’s amazing girls around me jumping 39s and stuff,” Delsite noted. “They pushed me a lot.”

Delsite was happy that she consistently was in the 36 and 37 feet range. After jumping 37-1 1/2, she jumped 36-10 1/2 on her third attempt, 36-10 on her fifth and 36-11 on her sixth.

“It was great to have consistency, I think that’s always my goal to be consistent no matter what, even if it’s on a lower scale,” Delsite said. “It shows if the weather was great, I could be consistent on a way higher level, which would have been great obviously, but you can’t predict what will happen. But I still got a medal and on the podium.”

POLISHED SILVER

Canton senior Alexis McRoberts came to Shippensburg like hundreds of other athletes hoping to leave with a medal. She not only did that, but left with a silver medal. Well actually, two silvers.

“It means so much. I’ve put so much time and effort and work into this,” McRoberts said. “To be able to come out here and get second is a great achievement for me.”

On Friday, McRoberts claimed a silver medal in the discus competition by throwing 136-10, just two feet behind state champ Maggie Voyda of Homer Center. On Saturday, she threw 40-10 3/4 to take second in the shot put competition.

She was behind only Laurel’s Alexis Geiweitz, who won with a mark of 41-6 1/4.

“I had a feeling that it was a good throw, but I know I have a great competition and a lot of girls that could have surpassed that,” McRoberts said. “I was grateful that I could throw that far, but I still had to keep throwing.”

Having athletes like Geiweitz in the shot put motivated and pushed McRoberts throughout the competition in the rain.

“They’re all great girls who cheer each other on and are great competitors. They were throwing very far, but at the end of the day, everyone is pushing everybody to get better,” McRoberts said. “It’s a great environment to throw down here at states, so that kind of pushed me a little bit.”

McRoberts also noted she was happy to be able to represent Canton, a smaller school in the district, on the podium on the state’s biggest stage for track and field.

“I’m so blessed to be able to do that,” McRoberts said. “We have a great community in Canton and I have a great support system behind me. I know when I go home, no matter what happened, my school was going to be proud of me. I’m so grateful to come out here and represent my school well.”

CHASING DOWN A MEDAL

The 1,600 relay is always a fun one for fans to watch, and Warrior Run’s boys relay team gave fans in Shippensburg an exciting finish to close out the 2026 PIAA Class AA track and field championships.

Warrior Run was in fourth place after the first split and from there, the Defenders kept at it and chased down athletes ahead of them. Warrior Run climbed up to third place and then second place by the third split. The final leg saw Warrior Run gain distance and finish just one second behind Catasauqua for silver.

“I mean, these two — Braego (Cieslukowski) and Max (Fogelman) — put us in a great position,” Warrior Run’s Gideon Kennel said. “All I could do was try to catch up to that front guy, but congrats to him because he ran a great race and I’m just happy to be here with my boys. Can’t ask for anything else really.”

Gideon Kennel ran in the race with his twin brother Ori, Cieslukowski and Fogelman and after Gideon Kennel and the 3,200 relay team didn’t do their best — they finished 11th place with Cieslukowski, Gideon Kennel, Aiden Hoffman and Ori Kennel in 8:18.01 — the Kennels and Cieslukowski wanted to have success in the 1,600 relay and did just so.

“This is a good feeling,” Gideon said, which Cieslukowski quickly echoed.

“I think that’s exactly how most of us feel,” Cieslukowski said.

And for him and Fogelman, winning their first medals is always a nice feeling at states.

“It’s amazing. It’s Braego and I’s first medal and it’s great to come out of here with a silver,” Fogelman said. “Props to my boys, props to Braego for getting a clean handoff. Same with twins, they put in work the whole race to make it easy. They really secured the second-place victory for us.”