Butler's Maggie Welty, Chesna Tomko and Erin LeMay accept their medals for placing 8th in the PIAA Class 3A girls 4x800 relay. Liz Simms was also on the team, but was being treated at the first aid tent after collapsing near the finish line.

Not long after the PIAA Class 3A girls 4x800 relay was completed, Butler distance coach Mike Seybert said, “We ask these kids to give everything they have.”

Then he gestured toward junior Liz Simms and added, “That was everything they have.”

Simms was lying flat on her back on a table under the shade of the first-aid tent inside Shippensburg University’s Seth Grove Stadium. The hot and muggy conditions had put her there.

Simms ran the anchor leg of the relay and held a comfortable lead as she came to the front straightaway on the final lap. She began to struggle halfway down the track and with less than five meters remaining before earning a state title for Butler, she collapsed.

Simms did get up and struggled across the finish line, but the Golden Tornado settled for eighth place. The quartet from Central Bucks West placed first.

“At that point, we’re not thinking about wins and losses,” said Seybert. “These are kids and their health comes first.”

Simms was not able to accept her medal during the presentation. The other members of the relay — Chesna Tomko, Maggie Welty and Erin LeMay — stood on the podium without her.

Read more about Liz Simms in Tuesday’s Butler Eagle.