The final go-round for Ava Bendetti’s Parkland High School track and field career will come this weekend. Bendetti has sprinted and paced herself to a distinguished Trojan athletic career, one which will culminate May 29 at the PIAA state meet at Shippensburg University.

The reason for the trip west happened last Wednesday at the District 11 Class 3A Track and Field Championships at Blue Mountain High School. Bendetti and her relay teammates - Lauren Williams, Madison Seed and Emily Beers - dashed to a second-place finish in the 4x800 race.

“I can’t even explain how excited I am” said Bendetti when asked what it meant to go to Shippensburg. “It’s so exciting, especially in my senior year, to end on this high note. Some of my best friends who I grew up with are on this team, so it’s just really great to do it all together. I’m just so glad we had a year to do this.”

Bendetti said she and her teammates were committed to giving their best in the race.

“We were like just leave it all out there and see what we got,” she said. “I know Lauren and I are seniors. We knew we could do this, so there was no pressure. I didn’t want anyone to fell upset if we didn’t, but there was no reason we couldn’t have gone. So I think it was just about having confidence in each other, and we have a good bond.”

In addition to her work with the relay team, Bendetti also finished third in the 800-meter run and placed fourth with her teammates in the 4x400 relay.

Bendetti will be joined at the Ship by Parkland teammate Lana Hurwitz, a freshman who finished a remarkable season with a second-place finish in the 1600.

Another inspiring story is the 4x100 relay foursome of Aubrey Semler, Naeema Salau, Madison Bowman and Melanie Lowe, who earned a second-place finish. In the field events, Coral Shivok took second in the pole vault to earn her trip to Ship, while Grace Nation was first in the triple jump and second in the long jump.

Other Trojans had solid performances also. For starters, the 4x400 relay team of Gracie Trexler, Ivy Dias, Aubrey Semler and Bendetti were only three second off the winning pace, good for a fourth-place finish. Salau just missed out on winning the 100-meter dash, finishing third in 12.58. Brooke Labenberg took and Jessica Price took third and 13th, respectively, in the 3200. In the 300-meter hurdles, Trexler earned ninth place, while teammate Madison Bowman finished 12th.

In the field portion of the late afternoon and early evening, Madeleine Battista took sixth in the high jump, Catherine Crampton and Meghan Haines finished 12th and 15th, respectively. In the shot put, Sonya Shivok and Mikayla-anne Woodring finished third and fourth, respectively. In the javelin, Chloe Chase and Sonya Shivok respectively took eighth and 12th.