Knowing he had to win the 300-meter hurdles to advance to the state championship meet, Ethan Geisler turned in a great performance.

A record-breaking performance, in fact.

Geisler, a junior at Slippery Rock High School, ran the event in 39.94 seconds Thursday at the District 10 Class AAA boys' meet at Harborcreek High School.

That effort broke the previous school record of 40.0 set by Keith Wagner.

And it also sends Geisler to his first PIAA event, which begins Friday at Shippensburg University.

"Keith set the mark back in the 1980s," said Slippery Rock coach Mike Kish. "Number one with Keith, he had more speed than Ethan, but Ethan is very aggressive and he attacks the hurdles.

"He won the race and was probably a full hurdles-length in front of everybody else," Kish added of Geisler. "He's a joy to watch because he's so competitive."

"I've been wanting to break the school record all season," said Geisler. "But going into the D10 meet, my main goal was to just qualify for states."

Which in District 10 Class AAA means winning the event, unless one's time meets the PIAA qualifying standard.

Last year, Geisler managed a 40.7 in the 300 hurdles at the District 10 event, but placed second and missed out on a trip to Shippensburg.

But before he could worry about district meets or school records, Geisler first had to learn how to run the event.

"My freshman year, I really didn't know what to do," Geisler said. "It was my sophomore year when I was able to become aggressive on the track."

"All season he has progressed," Kish said. "(Wagner's) record stood for a long time and we were all rooting for Ethan to break it."

Geisler gives much of the credit to Slippery Rock hurdles coach Tom Meling.

"He's real good with teaching the technique," he said. "He's run the hurdles before and he knows what it's like."

As far as the upcoming state meet is concerned, Geisler is hoping to improve on his latest performance.

"I'd like to improve my time, set a new school record," he said. "Maybe make it to finals and see what happens."

Also making the state meet after winning a District 10 Class AAA championship were Slippery Rock's Dan Hartzell (2:01.37 in the 800 run) and Ian Campbell (6-1 in the high jump).