SHIPPENSBURG — Franklin County athletes found the competition in the PIAA Track & Field Championships at Shippensburg University on Friday to be quite a challenge.

Jermere Jones

In the events that were completed, the best finish was an 18th. In the track events that held prelims on Friday, no area athletes were able to advance to Saturday’s finals.

The closest — by a hair — was Chambersburg senior Jermere Jones in the 110 meter hurdles. Jones ran a great time of 14.53, but he ended up with the ninth-fastest qualifying time and the top eight reach the final. The runner who qualified eighth was Achan Green of Penn Hills with a time of 14.53, just .01 better than Jones.

In the only final held on the track, the 1600, Greencastle-Antrim seniors Claire Paci and Hayden Parks competed. In the girls 3A race, Paci finished in 22nd place, with her time of 5:07.89 well off the pace she set in winning the District 3 race last week.

Parks crossed the line in 34th place with a time of 4:31.95 in the 3A boys 1600. The big news in the race was that the winner, Drew Griffith of Butler, ran a sizzling time of 3:57.08 to set a new national record for NFHS.

In field events that were completed Friday, Waynesboro’s Jada Creager took 18th place in the girls pole vault at 10-6, and Chambersburg’s Peter Mertz fouled on all three attempts in the shot put.

In girls qualifiers, Trojan senior Natalie Holmes posted the 18th-best time in the 100 (12.30) and did not advance. Waynesboro’s True Benchoff took 29th place (49.56) in the 300 hurdles prelim races.

Antonio Harrison II of Chambersburg competed in two prelims. In the 100, his time of 10.82 was 15th, while his mark of 22.27 was 19th in the 200.

For James Buchanan, Austin McCoy raced in the 400, but his prelim time of 49.88 was the 14th-best time (48.74 was the last time that made the final). The Rockets also competed in the 4 x 400 relay. The team of Colton Yeager, Connor Kinzie, Nate Towns and McCoy hit the line in a time of 3:25.82, which was 21st.