Amanda Kennedy has never been to the PIAA track championships at Shippensburg University, but she has an idea of what the meet's atmosphere is like.

"I was at a volleyball tournament at Penn State one year and happened to look at a TV and saw Tim Janitor, one of our athletes, running there," she said. "I'm pretty excited about going."

Kennedy, a junior at Bentworth High School, won't be running on the track at Shippensburg. Instead, she'll be on an adjacent field Friday morning competing in the javelin and representing the WPIAL.

She won the javelin competition at the WPIAL Class AA championships this past Tuesday at South Side Beaver with a decent throw of 127 feet, 2 inches.

The word decent is used because the toss earned Kennedy a gold medal, but it was hardly an eye-popping distance. By comparison, Ellen Metz of McGuffey set the WPIAL Class AA meet record of 140-11 in 2004. Karlee McQuillen of Westmont-Hilltop won the PIAA Class AA title last year with a toss of 157-6.

Still, Kennedy's winning effort was good, especially considering she had never placed in the javelin at the WPIAL championships.

"My freshman year I was injured and last year I just tanked in the final and didn't throw well," she said.

She went into the championships with the top-seeded throw (131-11) from the qualifiers and the determination to win a medal.

"[Not doing well last year] motivated me," she said. "It was kind of nice to come from nowhere and win."

In the age of the Internet, nobody comes from nowhere to win anything. Kennedy's qualifying throw was more than 24 feet ahead of second-seeded Conner Radgowski of South Park. So, she was at least one of the favorites going into the event.

Still, most athletes who leave South Side Beaver's stadium with gold medals earned an award of a different color in previous seasons.

Kennedy has only been throwing the javelin since her freshman year. When she went out for the track team, she wanted to be a jumper.

"I play volleyball and basketball and figured doing the jumps in track would help me in the other sports," she said. "But one of the coaches said 'You look like a thrower to me.' That was pretty much it."

"That was probably our throwing coach, Chet Henderson," Bentworth coach Jerome Nixon said. "Amanda has done a good job in that event for us."

She doesn't do any jumping events, although she still plays volleyball and basketball. In dual meets, Kennedy also threw the shot put and discus, and ran a leg on the 1,600-meter relay.

"I'm OK in the discus. I think my best is 89-11, which will get points in a dual meet but won't do much here," she said. "I guess javelin is my calling."

Her best throw in the javelin this season is 133-10. She will probably have to do better than that to win a medal at the PIAA championships Friday. The eighth-place throw -- the last spot that earns a medal at Shippensburg -- last year was 137-6.

Her winning throw at the WPIAL championships came on her final attempt of the day, although she was already in first place.

"It was a perfect day to throw," she said. "There wasn't any wind and it wasn't too hot. You couldn't have asked for better conditions."

Or for a better ending.