One Northwestern athlete and one relay team brought state medals home from last weekend’s PIAA Track and Field Championships, held at Shippensburg University’s Seth Grove Stadium.

Gavin Nelson took third in high jump to earn his first state medal, while the Tiger girls 4x100 relay team also earned a medal with an eighth-place finish. Medals go to the top eight finishers.

Nelson has been tremendous in the high jump this season, and last Friday was no different.

The junior was one of three left when the height went up to 6-8.

“It means everything,” said Nelson. “My coach for basketball (Patrick Wanamaker) even texted me, ‘Good luck today. You’ll do great.’ So I just really wanted to go into it positive and I was hoping to get 6-9, which is the school record. But 6-6 is still good.

“Overall, I’m very happy with myself and proud that I got 6-6. I’m proud that I got third. But there’s still some stuff I need to work on next year just to keep getting better and better. We’re just going to keep striving to reach my goals and what I know I can achieve.”

Nelson was a state qualifier last season, and captured league and district titles in the event this year.

“It just builds confidence up,” he said. “Next year, I know where I stand and I know what I can do. I know I can do this, I know I can keep getting better and I can set my goals higher for next year.”

Nelson, who was 16th at states last year, was seeded fifth at 6-5, and cleared 6-6 on his second attempt.

“So 6-7 is my PR,” he said. “And when I cleared 6-6, I thought, ‘All right, I’ve already done multiple jumps.’ I felt like my legs were getting tired, and I thought if I got 6-7 I didn’t know if I could get 6-8. I tried to just think ahead and tried to be smart with it. Getting 6-8 would have been my new PR, and I really wanted it, but I just couldn’t quite get it. But I’ll work on that next year.”

The Northwestern girls concluded a record-breaking campaign with an eighth-place finish in the 400 relay.

The squad of Sophia Schaffer - who also qualified for states in the 400 - Carsyn Van Norman, Taylor Langley and Kaia Grantham finished eighth in the 400 relay with a time of 50.51.

“It definitely feels great,” said Grantham. “It took us a while to get to who our actual team was going to be. Last year, we DQ’d at districts, so making it to states and medaling is all we could ask for. Obviously we would have liked to run a little bit better, but it was definitely a great season.”

Grantham is the only senior on the squad, which set a school record time of 49.76 at the Jim Thorpe Invitational this season, a mark that was also a facility record.

The Tigers were seeded eighth in the event at states with a time of 49.78 from the district meet. The team lowered its school record with a 49.51 in prelims.

“I feel like the race at Jim Thorpe was a great steppingstone for us,” said Grantham. “We really bonded as a team, especially getting the school record. It felt great and we were all really excited, and from there, we’ve just been going up.

“Putting in the time, and working with my teammates has really helped me get a lot farther than I imagined. I was not expecting this, and I’m really proud of what we accomplished this season.”

Several other Tiger athletes competed at states.

Sadie Fenstermaker, a league and district champ in shot put, competed in that event and discus at states. She threw 110-5 in discus for 11th place overall. She heaved the shot 35 feet to finish 13th in that event.

Grace Yost took 18th place in pole vault at states, clearing 10-0.

Schaffer took 24th place in the 400-meter dash with a time of 1:00.72.