All relay teams take alternates to the state championship meet. Few of them are called to action and even fewer teams have any expectations of needing them.

Teams often take alternates who haven’t qualified for the meet in other events as few teams have enough depth to reload a relay with state-meet caliber competition.

One team that does have that kind of depth is Parkland. When one of the Trojans’ boys 4x100 relay members came up with an injury in the 100-meter dash preliminary heats, the team was able to call on Andrew Beers to step in and take his place.

Beers was already set to compete in both hurdle events at the state meet. He added one more, earning medals in all three.

“Coming into it I was thinking four races, get to finals and do what you can in the hurdles,” said Beers. “Then 4x100 called and mentally it’s a whole shift of perspective.”

Instead of having a few hours in between his hurdle events, Beers had a much busier two days at Shippensburg University’s Seth Grove Stadium last Friday and Saturday.

On the first day of the meet, he posted the third-best time in the Class 3A 110-meter hurdle field at 14.39 and was fifth in the 300 hurdle prelims in 39.01, qualifying for finals in both events.

In his first time running the 4x100 relay, Beers helped the team to the fifth-best prelim time in the field, 42.39.

Just before running his first hurdle heat on Friday, Beers found out he’d be adding the relay when Trey Tremba injured a hamstring in the 100-meter dash preliminary. While he’s run the 4x400 all season, Beers had never performed the quick and precise hand offs required in the shorter relay.

“He handled himself well,” said senior Nakhi Bullock, who was a member of the medal-winning relay along with Dylan Simon and Xander McWhite. “It’s extremely tough. Emotions were all over the place. Of course it’s going to be different. He did the best he could and that’s all we could ever ask for.”

Their prelim time was just enough to take the eight and final spot in finals. The Trojans then improved on that time and finished fifth in finals in 42.08.

“I’m extremely proud of everybody,” said Simon. “The way Andrew took the anchor spot. He handled it very well.”

Beers, a junior, picked up a fourth-place medal in the 300-meter hurdles, running the final in 38.61. He also made the medal stand in the 110 hurdles with a sixth-place finish in 14.62.

“Three medals, you can’t ask for much more at states,” he said. “I still have another year so hopefully next year I get some higher places but as a junior I can’t complain at all.”

Simon used the 4x100 as a bit of redemption after a costly error in the 100-meter dash final. After posting the best preliminary time in the field at 10.57, a false start in finals caused his disqualification.

“I built up all the anger for [the relay],” he said. “The 100, it was just unfortunate.”

The Trojans dealt with some adversity over the two-day meet but still were able to battle their way to the podium and receive state medals.

“We’re excited,” said Bullock. “Just to be able to get here and make it to states was a dream come true. We didn’t get the result we wanted. We wanted to take the whole thing, but with the adversity we had I think we handled ourselves pretty well.”

Another group that handled itself well over the weekend was the Trojan girls relay teams. After a dominant performance at districts, where Parkland won all three girls relay events, the state meet saw the Trojan girls earn three top-10 finishes and two state medals.

The girls 4x100 team of Hailey Sammarco, Cierra Valley, Kaley Seide and Naeema Salau got things started Friday by taking fifth in prelims in 48.23. The group blazed to fifth place in finals in 47.9.

“We knew going in we were going to medal so we wanted to put in a good time,” said Salau. “Hearing the energy of the crowd was amazing.”

The girls 4x800 meter team took fifth place Saturday in 9:20.76, cutting 10 seconds off it’s previous best time. That relay team included Madison Seed, Lana Hurwitz, Gracie Trexler and Lucy Tobia.

“We talked about if we all ran a little bit faster we could get into the 9:20,” said Seed. “Getting 9:20 we did not expect.”

Parkland was seeded 21st in the girls 4x800 and ran in the first of two heats. The second heat included the fastest 14 teams. The Trojans won their heat in a school record time then waited to see times come in from the higher seeds. Only four of them ran faster.

“If we win our heat,” said Hurwitz, “it gives us a good shot at winning a medal, so that’s what we tried to do and it worked out for us. I think we were shooting for 9:30, the school record.”

Parkland’s girls 4x400 relay team of Seide, Tobia, Trexler and Valley came two places short of medaling. The team ran a 3:57.96 in preliminaries for 10th place.

Parkland’s boys 4x800 relay also ran at states, taking 20th place in 8:02.34. That foursome included Tyler Rothrock, Praveen Sureshkumar, Samuel Tomko and Brady Hoffman.

Several of the members of Parkland’s girls relays competed in individual events. Tobia finished 14th in the 400-meter run in 57.97. Sammarco took 17th place in long jump at 16-11 1/4. Salau finished 21st in the 100 in 12.41 and Hurwitz ran to 27th place in the 1600 in 5:06.87.

Catherine Crampton was 21st in triple jump at 34-7 3/4, while Paul Abeln (22nd place in 9:27.26) and Ethan Willard (26th place in 9:38.26) both ran in the 3,200 at states.