SHIPPENSBURG – It was all about Slippery Rock.

The Rockets had a healthy contingent of female athletes at the PIAA Track and Field Championships — 11 of them.

They served notice on the meet's first day that they could make some noise by the end of competition Saturday.

Sophomore Maryann Ackerman placed second in the javelin, freshman Gianna Bedel was fourth in the high jump and the school's 400-meter relay team became the first in school history to win a preliminary heat race at the state meet — or a relay race of any kind for that matter at the championships — Friday at Shippensburg University.

“Most of the time I come here, I have one or two people and the day is over,” said Slippery Rock coach Tom Meling. “Today I was running between one event to another. It's a great feeling to have that many people qualify and to know we have a good chance to score some points here and just see how many points we can get.”

Ackerman picked up a good chunk of points in the javelin on a challenging afternoon for throwers. The wind was howling from the northeast, causing a crosswind that knocked down distances.

Ackerman's best throw of the day was 134 feet, 2 inches — well below her previous-best effort of 147-5.

Skylar Sherry of Johnsonburg was the winner with a throw of just 137-3.

“The wind really affected everyone today,” Ackerman said. “I was watching the boys throw earlier and they were just dying.”

Still, Ackerman was pleased with her silver, especially after a slow start that had her worried.

“My first three throws, they were just terrible,” Ackerman said. “I knew I could do better and I just had to keep pushing myself to get a good throw in and I got one.”

Ackerman qualified for the state meet last year in the javelin as a freshman and placed 26th.

“I feel like last year was a good experience coming here,” Ackerman said. “This year I got to come here and got to actually be competitive. I went up 24 places from last year, so that's pretty amazing.”

Bedel's fourth-place finish in the high jump impressed Ackerman, who knows first-hand how difficult competing for the first time at the state meet can be.

“I knew exactly what she was going through,” Ackerman said. “She got fourth, so she did better than I did.”

The 400 relay team of Sierra Nagy, Emma McDermott, Tessa McHattie and Anna Kadlubek also made history, winning their preliminary heat with a time of 50.39 seconds to guarantee themselves a medal, barring catastrophe, in the finals Saturday.

“So proud of them,” Meling said. “We knew we were good, but you don't know how good you really are at the beginning of the year. We didn't even know if we were going to have Tessa for three weeks this year because of a quad strain. We didn't even know she could run until the week of districts.”

How well Slippery Rock did as a team — Emma McDermott was also ninth in the long jump, only a half-inch away from placing and her big event (the triple jump) comes Saturday afternoon — made Ackerman, who also placed 15th in the discus Friday morning, proud as well.

“It kind of puts Slippery Rock on the map a little bit,” Ackerman said. “What could be better? This is the whole point of doing track.”

Slippery Rock wasn't alone in the noise-making department.

North Catholic junior Joe Kearney placed third in the boys Class AA long jump with a leap of 22-8.

“A little disappointed because my (personal record of 23-5) would have clearly won it,” said Kearney, lamenting the winning jump by Brian Phillips of Hickory was 23-0. “But I'm still happy to get third. I still have next year.”

Also bittersweet was the finish in the Class AAA boys pole vault by Butler senior Jack Codispot.

He was painfully close to clearing 15-6 in the event, but had to settle for 15-0 and a fifth-place finish.

Luke Knipe of State College won at 16 feet, which was Codispot's goal for the state championships.

“First things first, it's a big deal to just make it to the state meet,” Codispot said. “Obviously, I would have liked to PR here, but I got fifth place at state. Can't be mad about it.”

Moniteau senior James Parenti also couldn't quibble about where he stood at the end of the afternoon in the Class AA discus.

Parenti threw 162-7 to place fourth for the second year in a row.

“I laid it all out there. I did everything I could do,” Parenti said. “I opened up with my best throw, which I didn't want to do. To have two state medals, I'm pretty proud of that. That's something that doesn't happen a whole lot out of Moniteau.”

Notes: Seneca Valley is poised for a big day on Saturday. Lauren Chappell qualified for the semifinals in the Class AAA girls 110-meter hurdles. Sam Owori and Connor Volk-Klos both advanced in the boys 1,600 and Seth Ketler moved on to the 800. The Raider girls' 3,200-meter relay team also gets a crack at a medal Saturday. … Karns City's Hunter Jones clinched himself a medal in the Class AA boys 400. … Freeport's Sidney Shemanski moved on in the Class AA girls 800 and Butler's Liz Simms did so as well in the Class AAA 800.