SHIPPENSBURG — Tyrone senior Claire Lehman left Shippensburg’s Seth Grove Stadium Friday afternoon with disappointment in her eyes after narrowly missing out on qualifying for the PIAA Class 2A girls 300-meter hurdle finals following a ninth-place finish in the prelims.

But fate had much greater plans in store for Lehman and her teammates in the 1,600-meter relay in Saturday’s final event of the state championships.

A fresh Lehman anchored Tyrone’s PIAA championship relay run in 4 minutes, 1.36 seconds to edge favorite Hughesville by less than a second after the Lady Spartans had already won the 3,200- and 400-meter relays earlier in the day.

“It almost seemed like it was meant to be,” Tyrone coach Brad Kanuch said. “I don’t like saying that, because she’s such a competitor in those hurdles, but it wasn’t meant to be, because this was supposed to happen. Our hearts broke for her yesterday, but now our hearts are so filled with joy for her now seeing that smile back on her face.”

Mirror photo by Michael Boytim Tyrone girls 1,600 relay members Braeleigh Flick, Sarah Chichester, Raylee Woodring and Claire Lehman celebrate after winning the gold medal on Saturday.

Lehman got the baton from teammate Braeleigh Flick in a virtual tie with North Catholic’s Audra Lazzara and quickly overtook her and never looked back.

“One hundred percent, yes — I knew we were going to win it,” Kanuch said. “She’s been like that all year. If she got the baton in the lead, she never gave it up. If she got the baton in second, she caught somebody. That’s the type of person Claire is. You just knew we had it. There were all the feelings — excitement, disbelief and pride all at once. It was everything we worked for. The change in mentality did it all.”

The change Kanuch referenced came as the season started. Tyrone has had plenty of success under Kanuch, especially on the girls side, locally. The Lady Eagles won a District 6 Class 2A team championship in 2021 and have had many individual and relay District 6 champions.

But the Lady Eagles have not found much success at the state level — until Saturday.

“We had a change of mentality this year,” Kanuch said. “It used to be that we were happy to just make it to states. But this year, the first day of practice, I said that was not the expectation anymore. The expectation was to make it to states and get a medal. I didn’t think it would be a gold medal, but the way these girls pushed all year you could just see that this was a special group.”

Tyrone entered the meet ranked No. 10 based on the seeding times from each team’s district meet. But despite not being in the top eight, the Lady Eagles felt positive.

“I love our team. We all hype each other up,” Flick said. “Our confidence this year is way higher than last year. I think we overall are a better support system together. Breaking school records back-to-back-to-back this year was really good motivation for us. Kept us on our toes and helped us come here and do something amazing.”

In many ways, Friday’s first day of states seemed like the same old story for Tyrone. Lehman came up just short in the hurdles preliminaries, and Sarah Chichester was 11th in the 400-meter dash prelims, three spots from landing a finals spot.

But the Lady Eagles did manage to secure the No. 6 seed in the 1,600-meter relay preliminaries and all but secure a state medal.

“I just think working together as a team, we push each other,” Lehman said. “I feel like ultimately we know that no matter how we do, we have each other. Having a close-knit group really helps the building toward a medal.”

Saturday instead of grinding out the 300-meter hurdles and the 400-meter dash, Lehman and Chichester prepared for the relay — shielded from the constant pouring rain and unseasonably cold temperatures.

“One thing that worked in our favor was that they were all fresh,” Kanuch said. “They stayed inside all day. They didn’t come out until 3 p.m. and took care of their bodies. They rested up. I don’t think the other teams had that luxury.”

Chichester got Tyrone off to a blazing start — her 400 meters was tracked at 55.94 seconds by MileSplit.

She handed off to freshman Raylee Woodring, who maintained the lead before passing it off to Flick.

“We all felt really good today,” Woodring said. “I’m happy for our team, because we’re all like sisters.”

Flick got the baton to Lehman at the same time North Catholic was making its transfer and about three seconds ahead of Hughesville.

But Chichester already knew it was over.

“Claire doesn’t lose,” Chichester said. “That’s what makes her so amazing. She has that drive in her gut to push herself beyond her limits, so I was confident in her knowing she would give it her absolute all.”

Lehman said as hard as it was to accept Friday’s result, she knew it helped her Saturday.

“Getting ninth — I was so close,” Lehman said. “But it gave me all day to rest from yesterday’s races, and I was able to give it all for my team today.”

Hughesville finished second in 4:01.77, and North Catholic was third with a time of 4:03.08.

“It’s surreal. I knew that we could do it, but I didn’t think we actually would,” Chichester said. “I was just so grateful to get on the podium and qualify for finals. But getting first is amazing and incredible. I love these girls with all my heart, and I’m so proud of everyone.”

Tyrone has managed to build a tradition locally in the 400- and 1,600-meter girls relays, and Kanuch is hoping Saturday’s win can start pushing those accolades to the state level much like fellow District 6 school Central Cambria has in the 3,200-meter relay.

“That’s the plan,” Kanuch said. “It’s going to be hard to live up to a program like Central Cambria’s standards, but we have been slowly building something. I want to just keep seeing it be built and every year just keep being great. I tell my kids every day is a great day to be great. Today was a beautiful day to be great.”