JACKSONTWP — Megan Powell knows a thing or two about time management — not that it's be easy, especially this time of year.

Powell, a junior at Seneca Valley, played a key role in helping the Raiders girls lacrosse team reach the WPIAL semifinals and also competed in the PIAA Track and Field Championships, nearly medaling in two events.

Trying to play two sports at such a high level is daunting enough, but doing it against top-flight competition and in the same season is brutal.

"It's so hard to wake up every morning and know you have a grueling schedule," said Powell of Cranberry Township. "People say, 'Pick one,' but I couldn't. It's tough, but I like it. Sometimes I come home and fall asleep on the couch and wake up at 10 p.m. and do my homework."

Powell, a midfielder with the lacrosse team, took to the game because her brother played and enjoyed it.

"There's a lot of running and it's aggressive," said Powell.

Her love of running came after she played other sports, including basketball, when she was younger, "but the more I (played lacrosse), the more I liked it and fell in love with running," Powell noted.

"She's a tough cookie," said Raiders track coach Ray Peaco. "That young lady is a gutsy girl."

Juggling the two sports didn't prove to have much conflict, schedule-wise, but it did take a lot out of Powell.

"It was really difficult. My parents were very supportive," said Powell, who maintains a 4.1 grade-point average. "With track after school and lacrosse at night, if we had two road games, I might have to go from Shaler to Butler."

Her toughest test for time was on May 22, when the Raiders defeated Quaker Valley 10-9 in overtime the night before the state track and field championships.

Powell had placed fifth in the 1,600 at the WPIAL Class AAA finals the week before.

Now, the 3,200 relay preliminaries, the first track event at states, was being run in Shippensburg at 9 a.m.

"I went home after the lacrosse game, then drove out to Shippensburg and got there about 2 a.m.," said Powell. "I get up about 6:30 or 7 a.m. It was a little crazy."

To make it crazier, Powell, who was an alternate in the 3,200 relay at the WPIAL finals, replaced Joelle Scarnati and was scheduled to run the first leg of the relay.

As it turned out, the team broke the school record with a time of 9 minutes, 24.77 seconds.

"I wanted to run as fast as I could because I love these girls," said Powell on her teammates. "I couldn't think about the relay during my lacrosse game and I couldn't think of the lacrosse game when I was running the relay."

The Raiders placed fourth out of 14 in the first of two heats with the top six in each heat advancing to Saturday's final.

Powell still had to compete in the 1,600 later, where her time of 5:08.77 — just 32-hundreths of a second off her school record —allowed her to advance to the next day's final as well.

In the final, the 3,200 relay team just missed a state medal, placing ninth, but broke the school record again with a time of 9:22.59, just 1.59 seconds away from a medal.

Powell placed 11th in the 1,600 finals with a time of 5:15.24.

The Raiders lacrosse team saw its season end three days later when it dropped a 10-7 decision to Mount Lebanon in the WPIALsemifinals.

From the lacrosse standpoint, there was never any problem on that end, "as long as I show up on time and play my game,"said Powell. "If I was tired at my games, there would be a problem. But I'm able to maintain the effort and fortunate not to get injured."

"That says a lot about her and her teammates on both sides," said Peaco. "She has the cooperation from the coaches and support from her parents to drive her all over the place."

Having competed in both spring sports the past two years, Powell will do the same next year. How to improve her efficiency will be the biggest obstacle.

"Every year, I say I'll be more organized," said Powell. "With a grueling academic schedule, there's certainly things I can do. But I put a lot of effort into everything."