As soon as the Spartans got that first baton hand off, though, it was all Hughesville. Hughesville ended up taking the second handoff, getting into first place and never trailed again from there.

It resulted in the first of two relay gold medals for the Spartans on a rainy and chilly morning at Shippensburg for the PIAA Class AA track and field championships.

While any gold medal is special, Hughesville’s Kylie Temple, Grace Fortin, Katelyn Temple and Emelia Wolfe did something no other Hughesville girls relay team had ever done: win state gold.

“This is the first state gold that a Hughesville girls relay team has ever had, but just being to come here — it only being the second time all of us have ever run together — and obviously the weather is not the best,” Kylie Temple said. “Being able to put all the pieces together and finish the race in first was a really cool moment for us.”

CHRIS MANNING/Sun-Gazette Correspondent Hughesville's Kylie Temple competes in the girls 300 hurdles on Saturday.

“It just means a lot to do it with this team with two seniors,” Grace Fortin added. “This has been something for me, I have run the 4 by 8 every year at states, but this is so much different with this team. We just have so much chemistry and we push each other. It’s really encouraging to see the time we ran and get the gold. It means a lot.”

Hughesville sent three relay teams to Shippensburg in the girls competition and all three were silver or better. The 3,200 and 400 teams took home gold medals while the 1,600 team took silver, just narrowly missing gold by less than a second.

Hughesville’s relay teams were a highlight that showcased a lot of area champions on Saturday. Wellsboro’s Piper Hoprich won two state titles, breaking the school record in both the 100 and 200 in the process to do so. In addition, Lewisburg distance runner Baylee Espinosa won the gold medal in the 3,200 for a second consecutive year, her fourth career gold medal at the state meet in the last two years.

In the girls 3,200 relay, the Spartans finished in 9:23.39, running outstanding in each split to gain time and resulted in winning by almost four seconds over Cathedral Prep, who took silver in 9:27.37.

“Getting a gold medal for me is one of the best things because I’m just a freshman, and I’m gonna miss Grace and Kylie a lot because they’re pretty good,” Wolfe said with a laugh.

CHRIS MANNING/Sun-Gazette Correspondent Hughesville's 400 relay team competes on Saturday. The Spartans won gold.

“I don’t think it really has (set in yet),” Temple said on making school history. “I don’t think it’ll really hit us until tonight that we got it. It’s a really cool accomplishment, but I think it’s a cool moment. We’re so full of adrenaline right now.”

That adrenaline carried into the 400 relay roughly an hour later.

In the 400 relay, Kylie Temple, Katelyn Temple, Sierra DeWire and Casey Schultz ran a time of 48.95 to take home another gold medal, winning by half a second over Seneca’s Olivia Paris, Brenna Kuhl, Angel Troutman and Madison Morvay.

The Spartans were looking to make it a gold sweep on Saturday, but it wasn’t in the cards in the final event of the day with the 1,600 relay.

Tyrone won the gold medal with a time of 4:01.36 with the team of Sarah Chichester, Raylee Woodring, Braleigh Flick and Claire Lehman. Kylie Temple was Hughesville’s anchor and got the baton with the Spartans in third place. She was able to pick up ground and surpass North Catholic down the stretch and got into a sprint with Tyrone’s anchor.

CHRIS MANNING/Sun-Gazette Correspondent Hughesville's 3,200 relay team exchanges a baton on Saturday. The Spartans won state gold.

Had Temple had another few meters, she’d have willed Hughesville to state gold, but unfortunately she simply ran out of track at the finish line and Tyrone beat the Spartans by 0.41 seconds as Hughesville finished in 4:01.77 with the team of Katelyn Temple, Kylie Temple, Fotin and Sierra DeWire.

“I’m very proud of us,” Fortin said. “We all ran what we knew we could do and I think us getting silver at first, I was like aww because we were the first seed, but just thinking about it, we had such a great day overall.”

“I definitely think if I had another 10 meters I could have done some more, but I for sure came out knowing I wanted to at least get up there with them and I pushed my very hardest and tried my best,” Kylie said. “I couldn’t get first, but we got second out of it. So I’m proud of the effort I put in.”

After that 1,600 relay wrapped up, the Hughesville foursome gathered behind the podium for an extended hug with one another. With Kylie Temple and DeWire graduating, it was the final time those two would run the 1,600 relay in a Spartans uniform to attempt to win another relay title.

“It shows how hard we worked all this season,” DeWire said. “We’ve chased and chased at every accomplishment we had. We wanted it so bad. I think you could see that throughout our team and I’m really glad we came out the way we did.”

CHRIS MANNING/Sun-Gazette Correspondent Hughesville's 3,200 relay team exchanges a baton on Saturday. The Spartans won state gold.

Hughesville’s two relay golds and silver medal — accompanied by a silver individual in the 300 hurdles by Kylie Temple and a top-8 finish in the 400 by Katelyn Temple — helped the Spartans finish second in the team race. Hughesville finished with 39, just a point behind Shenango’s 40.

“It just means a lot. Just within the past couple years, this was our first year qualifying all three relay teams and that obviously helped in scoring points,” Fortin said. “Just being able to qualify as many individuals and teams as we did was really special. It shows the depth as well. It’s something you don’t see very often, it’s very special”

Kylie Temple was hoping for a repeat state title in the 300 hurdles as she entered as the favorite in Class AA. She admitted she had some pressure she felt weighing on her to repeat with expectations from others, but regardless, she’s still happy she could cap her career with silver in the event.

“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, but…” Kylie Temple said with a sigh, “it did put a little pressure on me.”

The Spartan continued with her silver medal around her neck.

CHRIS MANNING/Sun-Gazette Correspondent Hughesville's 3,200 relay team exchanges a baton on Saturday. The Spartans won state gold.

“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,” Kylie Temple said. “I am proud of myself for still getting there with all of that.”

Temple ran a time of 43.66, just 0.04 seconds behind Wyomissing’s Lily Paolini.

“I knew she got out really fast, she got away from me a little bit,” Kylie 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.”

CHRIS MANNING/Sun-Gazette Correspondent Hughesville's Kylie Temple competes in the girls 300 hurdles on Saturday. Temple finished with silver in the event.