Matt Freed, Post-Gazette Penn Hills Rachel Bender finishes the last leg of the 400-meter relay. The Penn Hills team came in second place. Click photo for larger image.

SHIPPENSBURG, Pa. -- The four girls on the Penn Hills 400-meter relay team walked away from the PIAA track and field championships yesterday with silver medals around their necks and their heads held high.

"We don't need to apologize to anyone for this," said senior Jasmine Cottle.

Penn Hills finished second in the Class AAA 400 relay at Shippensburg University and saw no reason to say "sorry." Penn Hills would not have been at the PIAA championships had it not been for a goodwill gesture by three teams a few weeks ago.

"A lot of the criticism was unnecessary. This is high school track, and I think it was wrong for so many people to criticize us," said Penn Hills' Raquel Bender, who ran the anchor leg. "But I guess when you're on top, it comes with the territory."

Penn Hills was the defending PIAA and WPIAL champion, but, at a WPIAL qualifier May 11, Penn Hills' Taelor Fowler fell during the race and dropped the baton. Penn Hills finished the race, but placed 11th, three spots out of qualifying for the WPIAL championships.

Hempfield, Highlands and Norwin, who finished ahead of Penn Hills, all pulled out of the competition because they felt bad for Penn Hills. That moved Penn Hills into eighth and qualified the Indians for the WPIAL championships. Penn Hills finished third at the WPIAL championships to put the Indians in the PIAA meet.

Penn Hills was criticized in newspapers and on talk shows.

"The whole thing was just overblown," said Penn Hills coach Carl Sinkula.

Sinkula said Cottle, Bender, Fowler and Sha-tira Snell were affected by the ordeal.

"I think they felt some pressure and I think they wanted to win just for those teams that helped us," Sinkula said.

Penn Hills had relatively smooth handoffs yesterday, but, when the final exchange was made, the Indians were about 10 meters behind the first-place team, West Chester Henderson.

Bender made up ground, but West Chester Henderson won in 48.20 seconds. Penn Hills finished in 48.35.

"I'm disappointed because I wanted to close my senior year with a bang," Bender said.

Sinkula was philosophical.

"Years from now, when these kids look at those silver medals, they're not going to think about the last race," he said. "They're going to think about something nice that some people did for them.

"After the race and after they got their medals, all four of them came off the field and gave me a hug. They all just kind of sighed and said, 'We're glad this is all over.' "