BUTLER TWP — Julia Baxter figured her high jumping days were over following her final attempt in the event at the PIAA Track and Field Championships in 2015.

But something Butler High School track and field coaches John Williams and Rick Zitalone said to her struck a chord.

“After it was all over, coach Williams and coach Z pulled me aside and said to me, 'Never let this be the last time you jump,'” Baxter said. “That always stuck with me.”

She placed 12th in the state in that meet at the end of her senior season at Butler, but figured her athletic future solely belonged to basketball.

And for good reason.

She was a standout center for the Golden Tornado and became the first — and so far only — player in the history of Butler County Community College women's basketball to score 1,000 points in her two-year career with the Pioneers.

Baxter went to Slippery Rock University intending to play basketball there, but decided to transfer to Penn State University.

Suddenly without a sport, the track and field bug bit her again.

“I missed track so much — I wish BC3 had a track team because that would have been amazing,” Baxter said. “So I knew at some point I was going to get back into the pit.”

Baxter just never imagined she'd do it at Penn State.

Baxter joined the Nittany Lions women's track and field team last week. She said she'll definitely be competing again in the high jump and perhaps other field events.

“When I applied to Penn State and got the acceptance letter, I started looking up more stuff about the university,” Baxter said. “At first I was only planning on maybe doing club basketball or club track.”

But Baxter's friends encouraged her to shoot a little higher.

And now she's a Penn State track and field athlete.

Baxter has two years of eligibility with the Nittany Lions.

“It still doesn't feel real to me,” Baxter said. “The group text just started the other day with all the girls on the team made it a lot of fun. Also, to see the facility made it feel like home. It's beautiful and so nice with the track and the valley in the background. It's so amazing.”

Baxter isn't worried about finding her place on the team.

Baxter has always been gifted athletically, from being a two-sport star at Butler to her other hobbies.

Baxter is an accomplished juggler, rides the unicycle and can also slackline.

Yet she knows Division I track and field is an entirely different level.

“The coaches are sending us workouts here after the holiday, so that will change the routine I have been doing,” Baxter said.

Baxter has been no stranger to the gym.

She works the midnight shift at Concordia as a nursing assistant and doesn't get off work until 9 a.m.

Her first stop is the gym, where she runs, rows, bikes and lifts weights.

“All of this stuff is making me stronger,” Baxter said. “And it's starting to feel so much more real each day.

“Penn State feels like home to me every time I am there,” she added. “That just adds to the excitement I have. I don't even have words to describe my excitement fully yet.”