Whitehall senior Game Lamm knew it would be tough.

But despite running in the most competitive event of the cross country season, his goals were set high. Not only did Lamm want to finish last Saturday's PIAA State Championships below 17 minutes, he also wanted to earn a medal by finishing among the top 25 finishers of Class AAA.

And while Lamm missed out on reaching the podium to earn a medal, the senior capped off his third trip to states with a 96th-place finish in a time of 17:10 at Hershey's Entertainment Complex.

"Every year I hear that it is fast," Lamm said. "I wanted to come out here and run in the high 16's and try to get a medal. I was so mentally prepared this whole week, and I was getting ready. This whole week I was thinking mentally how am I going to get this medal? How am I going to do better than last year?

"It was a good season. I did what I had to do. I just wish I could've came out with a better time this race."

For Lamm, he's well aware of what it takes to compete at this level among the best competition in Pennsylvania. It requires a relentless attitude and a sprint from the starting line, whether or not the participants enjoy taking that approach.

"It was just fast, so I had to just go hard that first mile, harder than I would've liked," Lamm said. "I hit that first mile-mark in under five minutes. It was quick."

In this his last race of the season (besides the upcoming Foot Locker Cross Country Championships), Lamm wanted to leave it all out on arguably the most difficult course he's ran all season.

"This whole week, it started to hit me that this is going to be my last high school state cross country meet," Lamm, said. "At that starting line when the horn went off, I knew this was it."

When the time comes, Lame would like to continue his cross country career at the collegiate level at DeSales, Misericordia or Temple.

Given the terrain at the Zephyrs' home course in the Whitehall Parkway, Lamm is a runner who excels in the hilly portions. It's one area that he's generally able to take over races when needed. And not to say that he didn't succeed on the hills on Hershey's course, but it's a different level of difficulty than their home turf.

"I kept thinking of different game plans in my head," Lamm said, "and I came to the conclusion that I just wanted to go out and not have a specific tactic. Coming out here, it's going to be fast no matter what, even if I want to go out slow and come back in the hills."

Calvin Schneck, a junior, placed 212 out of the 239 finishers in a time of 18:18.