SLIPPERYROCK — Elissa McCune speeds down the track, stutters, then bounds over a hurdle.

Then another. Then another.

It isn't the prettiest thing in the world — yet. But give the SlipperyRock High sophomore some time. She just started running the event three meets ago.

Despite her rough technique and relative inexperience, McCune ran a time of 48.74 seconds in the 300-meter hurdles against Greenville last Tuesday. It was only the third time she has tackled the hurdles in her career.

Her time is a mere 1 second off the qualifying standard for the PIAA Class AAA Championships.

"I had no clue I'd be running it at the beginning of the season," McCune said.

McCune has run just about every other event in her two seasons on the SlipperyRock track.

She's run the 100- and 200-meter dashes, the 400 and legs of the 400-meter and 1,600-meter relays. She appears in the Butler Eagle honor roll in four of those events.

Nothing prepared her for a proposal by Slippery Rock boys and girls track coach Mike Kish and sprinting and hurdling coach Tom Meling.

Both asked McCune to give the 300-meter hurdles a try. Both were astounded by the results.

"When she ran under 49 (seconds), we just all looked at each other and said, 'Wow,'" Kish said.

The first time McCune ran the 300 hurdles, she clocked in at 50.6 seconds; the next, 50 seconds flat and the latest attempt resulted in her sub-49-second mark.

Kish and Meling suggested she try the event because they felt it was her best shot at getting to the state meet.

Her best time in the 400, while good at 1 minutes, 0.68 seconds, isn't good enough in a district that features several excellent competitors in that event.

"I think she's just a talented athlete," said Meling, who has coached a state champion in the hurdles inMelissa Sopher and a state placer in Abbey Basta. "She could probably do every event on the track, but when we sat down and looked at it, we felt the 300 hurdles was the event she had the best shot in."

Meling gave McCune a few days to mull it over.

It didn't take long for McCune to come back to Meling and say, "Let's do it."

Meling discovered quickly that McCune had all the hurdling intangibles.

"She has two things going for her," Meling said. "She has two things you can't coach: She's fast and she has courage. A couple of times in practice, she's gone over a hurdle and kissed the pavement, gotten back up and said 'Let's do it again.'"

Now, McCune has caught the hurdling bug. She can't seem to get enough of the event, and she said she enjoys facing its unique challenges.

"The hardest part is the hurdles themselves," McCune said. "They are kind of intimidating at first. The first time I ran it, I was so nervous. But you go over one hurdle and you just keep going over the rest, and you get used to it."

Meling said McCune also has a unique gift for the hurdles that he hasn't seen very often.

McCune is ambidextrous.

"Sometimes I can't tell which leg is the strongest," Meling said. "That's a good trait to have, because in the 300 hurdles, there is going to be a time when you have to go over a hurdle with the other leg."

McCune will face some big tests the next two weeks in preparation for the District 10 meet.

On Friday, Slippery Rock participated in the Pine-Richland Invitational, where she took on Pine-Richland's Terhea Doaty, who is one of the best hurdlers in the state.

The coach said she has a long way to go learning the finer points of the event, but when she does, look out.

"I've said to her, 'Why not go for Melissa's record?'" Meling said. "She's a long way off now, but when she's a senior, if she stays healthy and with that speed and courage she has, she can do it."