Nov 15, 2017 3 min read

Brenna Cavanaugh will always be remembered for her dramatic finish at the PIAA Class AA Track & Field Championships in May.

The then-junior from Bentworth High School came into the meet with the best time of all Double-A girls in the 100-meter hurdles.

In one of the most dramatic scenes to play out in this event, Cavanaugh fell in the semifinal hea,t going from first to fourth, but qualifying for the finals by a fraction of a second, then winning the gold medal from the outside lane.

Cavanaugh hopes her college career will be just as successful but less dramatic. And that college will be Eastern Michigan University.

Cavanaugh, now a senior at Bentworth, received a full scholarship at EMU and will compete in the Mid-American Conference. She picked Eastern Michigan over Kansas, Penn State and North Carolina.

“It was the best fit for me,” said Cavanaugh. “It had everything I wanted. The atmosphere was great, the campus, the people, the coaches. It just felt right.”

Eastern Michigan, located in Ypsilanti, was a late entry into the recruiting process and Cavanaugh wasn’t going to consider going there.

“My dad said the coach was nice and I should take a visit,” she said. “I always said I wanted to go down south but I went up there and liked it. It felt like home.”

Cavanaugh said she enjoyed the recruiting process, but is happy it’s over.

“It’s amazing to be an athletic recruit,” she said. “I thought, ‘I’m never going to get this chance again.'”

Cavanaugh’s fall and rise on the track at Shippensburg University was unique. She is believed to be the first hurdler or sprinter to win a state gold medal running in Lane 8, traditionally the spot for the slowest qualifying times in the finals.

But this situation was unusual. Cavanaugh won the race by crossing in 14.44, .33 ahead of Skylar Wilson of Susquehanna. No other hurdler in that final was under 15.02.

Among Cavanaugh’s track accomplishments are winning the state indoor long jump title last winter and the WPIAL long jump gold medal in May. She took third place in the long jump at last year’s PIAA meet and was a WPIAL runner-up in the 100-meter dash.

She’s preparing for the season with a number of exercises, including sprints, water workouts, lifting weight and plyometrics, which are short-burst activities that help increase power and speed.

“I’m really excited for the season,” she said. “Last year, my goal was to go to states and win it. This year, my goal is to break the records for the hurdles and long jump.”