Heading into his final attempt at the state long jump championship, Kyle Moore had second place all but locked up. But he saved his best for last and sailed 24 feet, 5 1/4 inches on his sixth and final jump to vault himself into first place and earn a gold medal Saturday at Shippensburg University’s Seth Grove Stadium.

“I just ran faster and was blocking everything out,” Moore said. “Made them clap for me because usually that makes me go faster and jump harder.”

All six of Moore’s jumps at the meet were 21-6 or longer and most of them would have been good enough to medal. A small adjustment late in the meet helped him make his final two jumps his best, as he leapt 22-8 1/4 on his fifth attempt.

“I started missing my mark a little and finally I found a good spot and ran faster and jumped harder,” said Moore, who was seeded second in the event.

He also competed in triple jump on the first day of the meet last Friday, finishing in 10th place at 43-6.

Moore wasn’t finished after his jumping events. He was also part of a 4x100 relay team that made the podium with a fourth-place finish.

Moore, a junior, ran the last leg of the relay, which included three seniors in Donavan McCargo running the first leg, Blaise Verrastro second and Dylan Darville third.

The Hornets were seeded ninth for the race and needed to move up a spot to make finals. They posted the second-fastest time in preliminary heats, 41.71.

“Weren’t sure if we were going to get in,” said Darville. “Our goal was just to win our heat, don’t leave it up to time. We ran the best race of our season. It was awesome.”

The foursome relied on its speed most of the season and didn’t work on refining it’s handoffs until the week before the state meet.

“We adjusted our steps and focused on that the past week,” said Darville. “That was big.”

McCargo pointed out that the three seniors all run track as a second sport. He and Darville consider football their first sport, while Verrastro’s is soccer.

“I’m surrounded by three very good athletes,” said McCargo. “This isn’t a lot of our first sports. We didn’t go into the season thinking we were going to get a state medal or anything. We never thought we’d be here at states. I’m blessed to be with these guys. It was a great season.”

Darville, who has excelled in basketball and football the past three seasons, made a last-minute decision to run track this year and earned his first state medal in the process.

While the their finals time of 41.92 was slightly off from their time a day earlier, it was still better than any time the group ran this season up to the state meet.

“We exceeded all of our expectations,” Verrastro said.

Emmaus was one of two District 11 teams in the 4x100 relay as Parkland also made it despite the Trojans’ having to replace their anchor leg, Trey Tremba, after an injury in the 100-meter dash prelim. They finished 5th in the event.

Hailey Reinhard capped a stellar track and field career by running three events at the state meet, earning a top-20 finish in all three.

Reinhard took 11th place in the 1600-meter run in 4:55.75. She also placed 12th in 3200 in 10:42.96. In her final event of the state meet Reinhard placed 18th in the 800 in 2:17.79. That’s 5,600-meters of racing against the state’s best over two days.

Verrastro also made states individually, running in the 200-meter dash where he took 14th place in 22.08.

Emmaus sophomore Tyler Grabinksi made his first trip to states and finished 13th pole in vault at 13-6. He cleared 12-6 on his second attempt then got 13-0 and 13-6 on his third attempts, but was unable to get over the bar at 14-0.

Verrastro was part of two relay teams that made it to the state meet. The District 11 champion 4x400 team of Tyler Finck, Brett Pavec, Jared Petre and Verrastro ran their preliminary in 3:27.31 for 21st place.

Junior Haven Tarbox took 18th place in javelin at states at 150-10. Freshman Madelyn McCartney finished 26th in 3200 in 11:17.27. Senior Anna Farnschlader qualified for states in discus, but was listed as throwing three fouls at the meet.