Northampton junior Jo Perelli had never been to the state cross country meet so far in her high school career.

But judging by her performance, you may have not guessed it. While she didn't finish amongst the top 25 Class AAA finishers that received medals, Perelli did put together one of the more solid days of Lehigh Valley participants.

Perelliwho finished in a time of 19:41came in 53rd place amongst the 225 participants in Saturday's PIAA State Championships at Hershey's Entertainment Complex. She was the sixth runner from the Lehigh Valley to cross the finish line.

"I felt strong throughout the entire race," Perelli said. "It was probably the most challenging course of the season, but I felt I ran well.

"It was completely different from anything that I raced before. It's a lot more pressure. The whole atmosphere of the race is really great."

Not knowing what to expect coming into her first meet at the state level, Perelli set lofty goals for running in the 19-minute range. She also wanted to place somewhere around the top-50 mark.

She did both to a tee after having a solid season throughout the Lehigh Valley area and District 11.

"I figured those were probably good goals to set since I've never ran that course before," Perelli said. "I think I hit both of those pretty good.

"I think I was expecting to honestly place a little bit lower than I really did. So to come in the top 50 of the state was pretty cool."

Grouped with over 200 runners, it's necessary for everyone to get out to a fast pace and not fall behind the pack. Perelli was able to hang in the front with a 5:51 first mile that positioned her in 50th place, 25 seconds off of leader Brianna Schwartz of Shaler.

"Normally coach would have us practice to kind of get out really hard," Perelli said. "Closing out on the district race, he was actually coaching me and the runner I normally run with…to get a feel for how districts and the state meet was going to be ran.

"When I ran the state race, it was about 20 seconds faster than my normal first mile."

Perelli jumped up to 47th place at the two-mile mark 12:13 into the race. She ran a pace of 6:06.

Her finish at states caps off a season that included a sixth-place finish in the District XI Class AAA Meet. She also came in ninth at the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference (EPC) championships a week earlier.