SLIPPERY ROCK — Emma McDermott ran up to Anna Kadlubek and smiled.

“Guess what?” McDermott asked.

Kadlubek shrugged.

“I'm running the (200-meter dash),” McDermott said.

The two members of the Slippery Rock High girls track and field team then shared a look.

They knew this was serious. They knew they were going to go all out to win the District 10 Region 2 championship.

For a decade, the Hickory girls track team had held a stranglehold on the title. The Hornets were riding a 54-meet winning streak and were hosting the Rockets in the final meet of the season.

Both were 5-0.

With a few tweaks — including putting McDermott in a race alongside Kadlubek she hadn't run since middle school — Slippery Rock won 82-68 last week.

It was the Rockets' first title since 2009 — the last time Hickory had lost a meet.

“I told them after the meet, 'You just did something that is unheard of — end a 54-meet winning streak,'” said Slippery Rock track and field coach Tom Meling. “'No matter how long you live, this will never be done again.'”

It was by no means easy.

Slippery Rock had come close to toppling Hickory in the past, including a close defeat last season.

This year, though, the Rockets had the right mix of talent in the right events.

Kadlubek won the 100-meter dash, the 200 and the 400-meter run. McDermott was second in the 200 and Slippery Rock pulled out the victory in a meet that went back and forth.

“It was close the whole way,” Meling said. “We were able to come out with a positive point total in the throws and the jumps. We needed to win all those points.”

Slippery Rock had already clinched victory by the time the final track event, the 1,600-meter relay, was run.

Still, at the end of that event, the Rockets erupted in celebration.

“Oh my gosh, we were so excited,” said McDermott, a senior who specializes in the jumps. “Right after we finished our 4-by-4, we ran around to all the girls shouting, 'We did it, guys! We did it!'

“We were so happy,” McDermott added. “Even though track isn't exclusively a team sport — there are team aspects to it — at the end of the day when we won, it was a big moment for our team. You can't win without your teammates.”

McDermott was willing to do whatever it took to win the region.

That included running the 200 and she ran it well, finishing second behind Kadlubek with a time of 27.4 seconds.

“I was pumped,” McDermott said.

McDermott has also been pumped this season because it's been the first since her freshman year that she has felt 100 percent.

After reaching the PIAA Track and Field Championships as a freshman in the long jump and triple jump, her athletic career was derailed by a torn ACL.

The injury wiped out her sophomore season on the track and slowed her down last year as a junior.

“I just couldn't get myself there last season,” McDermott said. “I have big goals — I'm a goal-oriented person and I always set big goals for myself — and my goal has been to get back to the state meet.”

Senior Emily Sarver also has big goals in the long jump and triple jump.

She's already scratched one of those off her list.

Beating Hickory.

“It was neck-and-neck for awhile,” Sarver said of the Hickory meet. “We were losing at one point and then we pulled ahead. It was the greatest feeling.

“For the seniors, we really wanted this,” Sarver added. “Last year we came close, but this year we got it.”

For Kadlubek, it was fulfilling because of the seniors.

She also went out of her comfort zone a bit by running the 400 — not her favorite event in the world.

“It's horrible,” Kadlubek said, laughing. “It's fun. It's OK, I guess. But it's such a hard race. If there is a person who likes that race, there's something wrong with them.”

Watching her teammates celebrate made the pain of running the 400 worth it for Kadlubek.

“It was just unbelievable,” Kadlubek said.