Whitehall senior Gabe Lamm has been battling body spasms throughout the Eastern Pennyslvania Conference (EPC) cross country regular season.

Those spasms popped up once again during the DeSales University cross country invitational over the weekend. But that didn't hold back Lamm from securing a top-10 finish at the event.

Lamm who placed 12th at last season's meet with a time in over 17 minutes improved in both of those areas a year later. His ninth-place finish in a time of 16:44.84 led a Whitehall boys' team that placed 15th out of 27 teams at Saturday's DeSales Centaur Invitational.

Junior Calvin Schneck placed 23rd with a finish of 17:11.15, and Elliot Miller came in 96th (18:41.01)

"I've been having muscle spasms in my abs, and it's been holding me back a little bit," Lamm said. "I've just been pushing through it, and getting treatments from the trainer. I'm just trying to work this out before the big races like districts and leagues.

"I was at a comfortable pace for the first mile. I went hard in the hills and pushed through those. After like the first mile and a half, I started feeling the spasms."

Hatboro Horsham's Casey Comber ran away with gold in a time of 15:57.82, while Pleasant Valley's Seth Slavin (16:16.83) and Souderton's Connor McMenamin (16:27.32) rounded out the top-three boys finishers.

As a team, Parkland had three runners place in the top 13 to capture the team championship.

Through a course that contains a number of hilly sections, some runners like to save their energy and take it easy in the rough terrain. But Lamm took a different approach during those stretches. It's an area that suits his style perfectly.

"There are two main areas during the course where there are hills, and I just wanted to attack the hills because that's what I've been training for," Lamm said. "Since I'm shorter than most, I use my short, quick strides to power through the hills and take advantage of being able to move up them swiftly."

By the time the final stretch was in sight, Lamm's back spasms began to be an issue once again. But the senior was able to stick with the second pack of runners to hold his stance and earn a medal.

"I was with the top pack pretty much the whole race, but toward the end in the last big hill, the spasms really got me," Lamm said. "The kid in first took off, and I was basically with the little second pack looking to hang on."

Led by Emily Brand's 23rd finish in 20:39.23, the girls placed 13th as a team. Alexandra Dorner came in 47th (21:38.88), Hannah Gill took 63rd (22:24.79), Ashlee Brosky finished in 94th (23:24.28) and Heather Busch earned 96th (23:28.84).

Southern Lehigh's Meseret Hart finished in first on the girls' side in 19:23.04. Marian Catholic's Tina Capparell (19:31.94) earned silver, while Northampton's Lyndsey Gallagher (19:36.01) secured bronze.

The Parkland girls also won the team championship, finishing three points ahead of Northwestern. Four Lady Trojans placed in the top 24.