The Parkland girls track and field program competed last Saturday in the Shippensburg Roddick High School Invitational at Shippensburg University.

The Trojans received some good performances in the highly competitive tournament. Lucy Tobia finished third in the 400-meter race with a 59.34 time. Teammate Lana Hurwitz took fourth in the 800 with a 2:19.63, missing out on a second-place finish by less than four-tenths of one second.

The Parkland 4x100 relay team took first place out of 34 schools. Another gold finish was turned in by Hailey Sammarco, who won the long jump in a superlative performance.

Earlier in the week, the Trojans won their fifth straight meet defeating Whitehall, 123-26. The win improved their season mark to 5-0. Parkland coach Stephen Ott said various factors have led to the team’s success.

“I believe it is a process,” Ott said. “Our staff has worked closely with our student-athletes to help the team build momentum the past few years. Each year you lose some athletes to graduation, and we need the younger athletes to step up and take their place.”

Some of that momentum was established when it was cold outside, and few people were paying attention.

“Our indoor track program has laid the foundation for our success,” the coach said. “While not everyone of our outdoor athletes participated in indoor track, many of them did. The success there helped to motivate the team at the start of the outdoor season.”

Next for the Trojans is an April 24 battle with Bethlehem Catholic and an April 26 encounter at BASD Stadium against Liberty.