Emily Chiappini is always smiling, is always joking with teammates and always in a pleasant mood.

But this week, the smile is a little bigger, the jokes a little funnier and the mood a little more pleasant.

Chiappini, a Butler High senior pole vaulter, finally will get her first taste of the PIAA Track and Field Championships, which begin in Shippensburg Friday morning.

Chiappini has felt the sting of coming close to qualifying but not making the state meet.

Last year, she fell just six inches shy of making it to Shippensburg.

"I cleared 10 feet and I needed to clear 10-6," Chiappini said. "It was tough."

This year, though, Chiappini becomes the third Butler female pole vaulter in the last three years to advance to the state meet.

And she won't be alone this year. Teammate Kendall Butch also will compete in the pole vault, giving the Golden Tornado a rare 1-2 punch in the event in Shippensburg.

"I think that speaks highly of (Butler pole vault coach C.J. Morgante)," said Butler girls track and field coach Rod Harris.

Morgante coached Melanie Buczko to a second-place finish at the state meet two years ago and helped Butch make it to the championships last season in the event.

Buczko is shattering records left and right at Bucknell University.

"He's probably one of the best coaches in the WPIAL," Chiappini said. "Whatever he tells me to do, I do it and it works. He told me to (go up a pole size), I did and I cleared 10-9.

"I'm sure as long as C.J. sticks to coaching the pole vault at Butler, we'll have someone going to state every year. Kendall is phenomenal."

Chiappini hasn't been so bad, either.

In the three meets before the WPIAL championships, Chiappini cleared 11 feet in the event.

That helped to take the edge off the nerves as she prepared for her qualifying vault in Baldwin.

"It was still nerve-wracking," Chiappini said. "In the indoor season, you can qualify at any meet throughout the season. In outdoor season, you have one chance."

And the pole vault is not an easy event. Performances can vary greatly from one meet to the next.

Just ask Butch, who cleared 10-6 at the state meet last season and didn't place after clearing 11-feet and placing third in the WPIAL championships the week before.

But this year, Butch will have Chiappini to lean on for support and vice versa.

"I haven't been jumping my best recently," Butch said. "It's good for both of us to go because we'll both have each other to help practice with."

Chiappini is one of the leaders on the Golden Tornado and has built herself into a top-notch pole vaulter.

"She's a great kid," Harris said. "She's our hardest worker on the team - she's always the first at practice and the last to leave. She's our captain."

That isn't lost on Butch, who said she picks up things from Chiappini that helps her in the pole vault as well as other events.

"I learned a lot from her this past year," Butch said. "She's been a mentor to me and it's just so great that we both qualified. I'm very excited we both get to go."

Chiappini also is excited to have Butch with her.

"There will be someone to practice with and someone to enjoy the experience with," she said. "Kendall will know there is someone in her corner."

Chiappini advanced to indoor championships in the pole vault during the winter, where she set her personal-best mark of 11 feet. She has built on that throughout the outdoor season.

But she said there is still a lot of work to do this week in preparation for the state meet, although, for her, the pressure is off.

"It will be a lot of practice this week," Chiappini said. "Just getting there was the goal. I don't think I will feel that much pressure. I can just go out and try my best and see what happens."