Junior Mikayla Stoudt stood above everyone else as she captured gold at last year's DeSales University cross country meet, leading the Lady Trojans to a second-place finish as a team behind Northwestern.

Fast forward a year, and Stoudt was once again among the top girls participating in the event.

And while her fifth-place finish was a few spots off from last year's gold, her time of 19:41.39 was a number of seconds faster than last year. More importantly, the Lady Trojans got a bit of revenge on Northwestern, edging the Lady Tigers by three points for the girls' championship on Saturday afternoon at the 35th Annual DeSales Centaur Invitational.

The Parkland boys also took home gold as a team, finishing 14 points ahead of second-place Twin Valley.

"I'm not pleased with my place because last year I won it," Stoudt said. "The competition got a lot better this year. I had a rough track season, and I had a bunch of problems. My time was better this year, so I'm happy about that.

"[Earning the team win] is a really good accomplishment. Last year we got second to Northwestern, and this year we beat them. We're all happy."

Stoudt led a group of four Lady Trojans that finished in the top 26 racers. Cara Moyer finished in 14th (20:17.48), Madeline LeFrock took 22nd (20:32.25) and Sydney DelVecchio placed 26th (20:53.45).

Stoudt made her move nearly a mile-and-a-half into the race, and by the two-mile mark she was able to pass a number of runners in a patch of even terrain.

"I knew that the hill section was going to be rough, so I tried to take it easy through there and stay positive," Stoudt said. "Through the cornfields, I think I passed probably around five girls."

Southern Lehigh's Meseret Hart took gold with a time of 19:23.04. Marian Catholic's Tina Capparell came in second at 19:31.94. Northampton's Lyndsey Gallagher ran a 19:36.01 for a third-place finish.

Senior Grant Newman paced the Parkland boys with a fifth-place finish. He ran a 16:31.82. Two other Trojans, Hailemichael Geiger (12th, 16:50.22) and Daniel Kyvelos (13th, 16:54.01) placed in the top 13 finishers.

"The last invitational at Kutztown we did kind of poor," Newman said. "Now that we did great, we know that we're back on track."

Newman's finish was a new personal record. The combination of a cooler weather setting and a steady race allowed Newman to break his old personal best by over nine seconds.

"I definitely like the cold better," said Newman, who finished 17th in the event last year. "I thought the race started a little fast, but then I started picking off people and got back up there."

Newman was able to pass a number of the top runners as the hilly portion of the course hit midway through the race. The senior then held his distance near the front for the remaining half-mile of the race.

"The hills in the woods is definitely the best place to pass people," Newman said. "With about a mile left I was in tenth, and I just picked a couple of people off. By the half-mile mark, I was in fifth and kept that until the end."

Hatboro-Horsham's Casey Comber (15:57.82), Pleasant Valley's Seth Slavin (16:16.83) and Souderton's Connor McMenamin (16:27.32) rounded out the top-three finishers on the boys' side.