A chance at capturing perfection for the Parkland girls cross country team would most likely come down to the Trojans and Emmaus. Both teams entered last Wednesday's meet at the Lehigh Valley Parkway undefeated on the season.

It was freshamn Mikayla Stoudt who finished in second place with a time of 19:36 that led five Trojan runners in the top nine to defeat Emmaus (23-38), Whitehall (15-49) and Central Catholic (20-43).

"I'm actually really proud of this team," said Stoudt. "We did really good. We have some tough runners and really good runners. We're all pretty good. I'm just really happy with the way we performed."

Cara Moyer finished in fifth with a time of 20:10, and the Trojans' final three runners were the meet's deciding factor. Cassidy Newman (seventh), Nicole Albertson (eighth) and Judith Skinker (ninth) all crossed the finish line within 30 seconds of each other.

"There's not a big spread between our first runner and our seventh runner," said Stoudt. "It's sometimes like 30 seconds or sometimes 45 [seconds]. So we're all really close team-wise finishing."

On the boys side, Trevor Bergen finished in first place with a time of 16:59, 18 seconds before any other runner crossed the finish line. And like he always does after finishing a race, Bergen immediately turned around to see where his fellow Trojans would follow suite.

Not far behind were Will Nemeth in third (17:29) and Noah Cosgrove in fourth (17:31), helping the Trojans secure three more victories and improve to 10-1 to close out the regular season.

"Whenever I finish a race, the first thing I do after I cross the finish line is I turn around immediately," said Bergen. "I was looking for those guys looking for my teammates and looking for my competitors. I love seeing my guys finish together.

"I'd rather my team have an incredible season and I go average. It's just so much more fun to celebrate with my team."

Connor Ceh (seventh 17:47), Grant Newman (eighth 17:48) and Rob Strauss (10th 17:51) gave the Trojans a total of six runners in the top 10.

"I'm still a little sore about Freedom beating us," said Bergen. "But you can't take any loss easy. Our entire team, we're a little upset and we're going to use that fire going into leagues and districts. Our overall season, we're pretty proud of how we did."

At the league meet, held Tuesday at Bethlehem Municipal Golf Course, the Trojans repeated their regular season standings, winning the girls meet and placing second on the boys side.

Stoudt was the top Trojan again, taking second to Central Catholic freshman Colleen Daday. The girls were 48 points better than the Green Hornets. The boys were again led by Bergen, who was third. He was just under two seconds behind Northampton's Alec Lederer. The two were a good distance behind boys champ Colin Albert of Easton, who ran a 16:35 to win the league crown.