Madison Uhlenkamp finished in sixth place at the Hershey’s National Track Meet in the softball throw for the 13-14 age division. Submitted Photo

Madison Uhlenkamp was tricked.

But it was a trick that sent the 13-year-old Rugby 8th-grader the Hershey National Track Meet.

Uhlenkamp threw a personal record of 174 feet in the softball throw at the state meet in Rugby in July, and qualified for the national meet, where she placed sixth.

The qualifying throw was made when her step-dad tricked her by making her think she wasn’t throwing as far as she actually was.

“He stood at 170 feet and I aimed at him,” Uhlenkamp said. “He told me he was standing by the 150. It was further than I knew and I just aimed for him and got it there.”

The throw surpassed her previous best by more than 20 feet.

At nationals, she threw just under 150 feet.

“I went down there with a bad arm and it wasn’t a perfect weather day either,” she said.

Uhlenkamp had plenty of time for fun on the trip to Hershey, Pa.

She spend a day at a water park and even got to take a picture with Olympic superstar Carl Lewis.

She said she plans to continue track and field even though she can only compete in the Hershey event for one more year.

“I have one more year left,” she said. “We can only be in it from age 9-14, but I’m going to continue track and throwing and hopefully when I get older I can go to Pennsylvania and volunteer there.”