SHIPPENSBURG -- Shoulder pain never felt so good for Renee Arey.

The York County Tech junior grabbed her right shoulder after letting loose her second throw in the finals of Friday's PIAA Class AAA javelin competition. Her euphoria after finding out she threw a personal best

137 feet, 10 inches to move into second place proved a powerful painkiller.

In only her first year of track and field, Arey continued a season full of drastic improvements by beating her personal best by more than six feet and picking up a silver medal as the only Tech athlete to qualify for the state competition at Shippensburg University.

"I just remember running as fast as I could and turning my hips like I've been told at practice and just letting

South Western's Karl Maynor competes in the PIAA Class AAA 400-meter preliminaries on Friday at Shippensburg University. Maynor did not advance to today's finals. He finished sixth in his heat in a time of 50.83 seconds.

(Daily Record/Sunday News - James Robinson)

Indian Valley sophomore Laura Loht won the gold with a throw of 141-08, and Northeastern senior Heather Bulger took fifth with a personal best toss of 129-05.

Arey said she separated her right shoulder in practice a week and a half ago, but

was still able to win first place in the District 3 meet on May 16 with a throw of 130-2. She beat that number by three feet with her first throw of the day on Friday and was third entering the last three attempts.

The Tech junior moved ahead of Unionville senior Matilda Pancoast with her shoulder-straining throw in the finals. After receiving her hardware on the medal stand, Arey said the result was "better than I ever expected" and still seemed to be in disbelief.

"It was very shocking," Arey said. "It's all still new."

A former gymnast, Arey said she will definitely return to the track and field team for her senior season and already has 140 feet as her new distance goal.

In her final high school competition, Bulger recovered nicely from her performance at districts to get on the medal stand. She took fourth last week with a throw of 117-10, but managed to outdo her personal best by more than five feet to finish fifth in the state.

Birthday girl snags silver: She just earned a PIAA silver medal in the pole vault. Now she wants to legally drive a car.

Bermudian Springs sophomore Georgia Williams kept her mistakes to a minimum in the early rounds and vaulted a personal best 11 feet to finish tied for second in the Class AA event on the morning of her 16th birthday -- and only hours before taking her learner's permit test.

Last week's District 3 gold medal winner, Williams was joined in the top six in the PIAA competition by two other YAIAA athletes -- senior teammate Krystal Baker, who cleared 10-6 for sixth place, and Hanover's Lindsay Kopenhaver, who also vaulted 11 feet and finished fourth.

Williams didn't even know she had reached her personal best until the Hanover senior said something to her.

"I didn't even know it was at 11 until Lindsay said: 'Why aren't you happy?'" Williams said. "I thought it was only at 10-6. But yeah, I'm so happy."

Five vaulters cleared the 11-foot bar, but all of them were unsuccessful in their first two attempts at 11-6. Mount Pleasant senior Abby Way got just enough height on her third attempt to clinch the gold medal.

Williams and Bethlehem Catholic's Kerry McDermott tied for the fewest misses on earlier vaults to share second place.

Williams has two more opportunities to pick up a PIAA gold medal before the end of her high school career. The sophomore said she likes her odds.

"I think it's a pretty good chance," Williams said. "A lot of the girls that placed today were seniors. I wish Lindsay and Krystal weren't seniors, but we all have to go someday."

Baker will have another opportunity to earn a medal in today's triple jump. She comes into the event seeded fifth after winning last week's District 3 competition with a jump of 37-01.5.

Golden Knights boys make some noise: Eastern York senior James McBride was the fastest 1,600-meter runner on the track in Class AA Friday, finishing with the top time of 4:27.38 in the preliminary race to easily qualify for today's finals.

Two Eastern relay teams also moved on to the finals, with the 400-meter relay quartet of Ryan Dohm, Joe Giandalia, Damian Myers and Ian Melhorn running a 43.21 in the preliminaries, and the 1,600 relay team of Myers, Melhorn, Zach Dohm and Wes Dixon just squeaking in with a time of 3:26.01.

Ryan Dohm also ran the second quickest time in the Class AA 110 hurdles preliminaries, easily advancing to today's semifinals with a 14.83 clocking. Giandalia reached the semifinals in the 110 hurdles as well, finishing third in his heat, and Myers also moved on to the 200 semifinals.

Others advancing: Central York senior teammates Katie Craven and Shakeria Love will both be among the eight runners in today's Class AAA girls' 400 finals after strong performances in the preliminaries.

Dover senior Wendy Hutchinson finished first in her heat and fifth overall in the Class AAA 800 preliminaries, earning a spot in today's finals. Junior teammate Sasha Hornock advanced to the semifinals of the 200.

In Class AAA 1,600, Red Lion's Greg Kareis and Dallastown's Tim Moyer both easily qualified for the boys' finals.

Two William Penn sprinters moved on in Class AAA action, as seniors Robert Richardson and Corinne Rossum advanced to the 100 semifinals in the boys' and girls' competitions, respectively. Richardson also moved forward to the 200 semifinals.
smclernon@ydr.com; 771-2045