The Whitehall High School cross country teams opened their season Saturday at the competitive DeSales Invitational.

The Zephyrs ran to an 18th-place finish in the boys varsity race and took 15th in the girls competition.

“Its what we expected for this early in the season,” said head coach Mike Lelko. “It’s our first event of the season. We had five weeks of training. We start Tuesday at Easton and this is a nice tune up to start. You have some good schools here.”

Calvin Schneck led the boys team with a 62nd-place finish in 18 minutes and 35 seconds.

“I really did my best considering the circumstances,” said Schneck. “I had a bad side sticker and my knee started hurting me. The combination of the two just really hindered me.

“I wanted to get top 15 and try to finish under 17 minutes. Last year I came in 23rd with a 17:11, so I was hoping to drop my time and my placement this year. Unfortunately today wasn’t my race. My body just wasn’t ready.”

Schneck, a senior who placed 15th at districts last season, is hoping to make his second straight trip to the state championship meet.

“This season I want to break into the 16s,” he said. “Around 16:30 is my main goal. I’d like to medal at districts and go to states again.”

The rest of Whitehall’s top five in the boys race included Elliot Miller (90th), Andrew Hawk (96th), Gavin Wood (117th) and David Labib (122nd).

The Zephyr girls were led by junior Hannah Gill, who finished 77th in 23:18. Rounding out the girls top five were Emma Heffner (90th), Ashlee Brosky (106th), Casey Cunningham (109th) and Tiffanie Hopkins (111th).

Whitehall also had athletes participate in the junior varsity, freshmen and girls middle school races at DeSales.

The JV girls team took 12th place with senior Carmen Collins finishing 95th. The boys finished 15th as junior Samuel Rappaport was 81st.

Whitehall’s girls team took second place in the freshmen race. Autumn Dragovits finished fourth overall and the team’s top five were all in the top 32 places.

The Zephyrs earned fourth place in the freshmen boys race. Caleb Straub (8th) and Daniel Jablonski (9th) led the way for the team.

Some of the freshmen will be in the varsity line up. They ran the same course as varsity at DeSales and the top freshmen runners came in with times better than several teammates that were in the varsity race.

“I put all of the freshmen in the freshmen race,” said Lelko. “We have some good freshmen boys and girls. They know the time they get is comparable to the time the varsity gets.”

The girls middle school team saw Devon Roberts come in 12th as the team ran to a seventh place finish.

DeSales Invitational Results

VARSITY

Boys

Team

1. Parkland 67, 2. Owen J. Roberts 74, 3. Holy Ghost Pres 104, 4. William Tennent 114, 5. Twin Valley 159, 18. Whitehall 476.

Individuals

1. Liam Conway (Owen J. Roberts) 16:24.14, 2. Hailemichael Geiger (Parkland) 16:35.18, 3. Sean Rahill (William Tennent), 4. Dan Kyvelos (Parkland) 16:40, 5. Callahan Lennon (Holy Ghost Prep), 6. Josh Faber (Twin Valley), 7. Patrick Donahue (Holy Ghost Pres), 8. Abe Van Helmond (Owen J. Roberts), 9. Hudson Delisle (Quakertown), 10. Noah Falasco (Upper Merion).

Whitehall

62. Sr. Calvin Schneck 18:35, 90. Sr. Elliot Miller 19:11, 96. Jr. Andrew Hawk 19:17, 117. Jr. Gavin Wood 20:23, 122. Sr. David Labib 20:28, 146. Sr. Marvin Manalo 22:36, 151. Jr. Adrian Anatalio 24:46.

Girls

Team

1. Downingtown East 61, 2. Owen J. Roberts 90, 3. Twin Valley 108, 4. Pennridge 135, 5. Northwestern Lehigh 157, 15. Whitehall 415.

Individuals

1. Allana Powletter (Stroudsburg) 19:46.28, 2. Maddy VanBlunk (Downingtown East), 3. Sophie Doman (Palisades), 4. Lexi VanBlunk (Downingtown East), 5. Meghan Bernotas (Owen J. Roberts), 7. Sydney DelVecchio (Parkland), 8. Joyce Michelle (Stroudsburg), 9. Tierra Graham (Twin Valley), 10. Allison Brunton (Owen J. Roberts).

Whitehall

77. Jr. Hannah Gill 23:18, 90. So. Emma Heffner 23:58, 106. Jr. Ashlee Brosky 25:40, 109. So. Casey Cunningham 25:43, 111. Sr. Tiffanie Hopkins 26:14, 112. Sr. Alexandra Dorner 26:31, 113. Sr. Janise Cooper 26:34.

JUNIOR VARSITY

Whitehall Boys (15th)

81. Jr. Samuel Rappaport 21:29, 151. Jr. Alex Sodl 23:46, 154. So. Muhammad Azim 23:51, 171. Jr. Stephen Solderidg 24:22, 183. Sr. Alexis Anatalio 24:50, 193. Sr. Matthew Madura 26:14, 196. So. Mile Blumenau 27:00

Whitehall Girls (12th)

95. Sr. Carmen Collins 27:25, 104. Sr. Jackie Khalil 28:14, 107. So. Madison Gaston 28:29, 108. So. Alyssa Jiminez 28:33, 119. So. Genesis Perez 29:00, 122. So. Faith Schaffer 29:07, 152. So. Roksolana Salamakha 33:20, 157. So. Elizabeth Gill 36:03.

FRESHMEN

Whitehall Boys (4th)

8. Caleb Staub 19:21, 9. Daniel Jablonski 19:22, 31. Nick Demjan 21:10, 46. Jonathan Cordero 21:52, 78. Esmeal Maleeg 28:39.

Whitehall Girls (2nd)

4. Autumn Dragovits 21:48, 13. Juanita Flores 24:13, 14. Rachel Herr 24:18, 28. Summer Herb 28:41, 32. Helen Davis 30:26.

MIDDLE SCHOOL (2 Miles)

Whitehall Girls (7th)

12. Devon Roberts 14:21, 40. Lindsay Solderitch 15:37, 41. Natalia Pedraza 15:46, 53. Kathryn Kelly 16:17, 58. Delaney Sullivan 16:24, 62. Mariele Pantungan 16:29, 93. Rachel Pollitt 18:39, 94. Hannah Sierra 18:39, 96. Brianna Uhnak 18:46, 104. Haylee Chan 19:16, 116. Tylisa Enchucutegi 20:12, 118. Tori Jones 20:17, 131. Marina Fayez 23:35.