BUTLER TWP — The last time Abby Basta felt healthy running the hurdles was last May in at the PIAA Track and Field Championships.

In the 100-meter finals, she toppled over a hurdle, took a hard spill to the all-weather track at Shippensburg University and stumbled across the finish line to place eighth.

It was a disappointing end to a state meet that had so much unexpected promise.

"Hopefully, I won't fall this year," Basta said.

She hopes there will be a this year.

Basta, now a senior atSlipperyRock HighSchool and still learning the hurdles events, is fighting another battle against a left ankle injury that just won't go away.

Despite that, she turned in her best times of the season at the Butler Girls Track and Field Invitational Saturday, placing third in the 100-meter hurdles with a time of 15.54 seconds and fifth in the 300 hurdles with a mark of 49.35.

"I was feeling like a really old person the last couple of months because I haven't been fast because of my ankle," Basta said. "I had no speed. So, today to have some speed, it feels great."

After her experience last season at the state meet in which she wasn't even expected to place, yet did, Basta is more determined than ever to return and do better.

She admits what she did last year will be a hard act to follow because of the surprise factor.

And that pesky ankle.

"Last year after states all I was thinking was, 'Next year, I'm going to start earlier and train harder and I'm not going to get hurt, and when it happened, it was really hard. But I had a lot more experience with my ankle, so I knew how to get back."

Basta injured her ankle this season in a District 10 basketball playoff game against Villa Maria. It was eerily similar to another ankle injury she suffered the season before against Villa.

But this one has had a different effect than the other.

"It just kind of slows me down without me realizing it," she said. "It's sort of subconscious. I feel like I'm running the same, butI'm not. It also puts more pressure on my right leg and it's hurting my hamstring. It's not the ankle anymore, it's leading to other problems."

Basta also is running a leg of SlipperyRock's 800-meter relay with seniors Casey McCaffrey and Janelle Hartzell and freshmanElissa McCune. That foursome placed third at the Butler Invitational Saturday with a time of 4:22.69.

The relay has all four excited about what might happen in May.

"We've been running in a relay together since the third grade," Basta said. "It's always been Casey (McCaffrey), Janelle (Hartzell) and I in every single relay. It seems like we haven't reached our potential yet. We have so much chemistry together. It just takes one race to go fast and break through."

McCaffrey is shooting for an individual trip to the state meet in either the 400 or 800 — or perhaps both.

She also is focused on getting the 1,600-meter relay team to Shippensburg. Last year, she went with the 3,200-meter relay team.

"It will be a big disappointment if we don't," McCaffrey said.

SlipperyRock has a slew of young talent coming up, led by McCune and others.

But Rockets coach Mike Kish said he is going to have a hard time replacing the likes of Basta, McCaffrey and Hartzell next season.

"We have some nice, fresh talent with our freshman group and we really are in love with them," Kish said. "But we don't have any like McCaffrey and Basta who you know going into a meet you can win this or win that."