Chris Stitzel knew it would happen at some point.

As the Northwestern cross country coach entered the 2016 campaign, he was well-aware that the 129-0 streak his girls carried into the season wouldn’t and couldn’t last forever.

“I know it’s going to end eventually, but we’re trying to enjoy it for as long as we can,” he said before the start of the season. “I don’t like to bring it up because I don’t want to put pressure on them. But they are aware of it.”

The streak, which started on Oct. 13, 2010, was halted at the hands of Southern Lehigh in September.

Another remarkable run ended at last Wednesday’s District 11 Cross Country Championships, as the Lady Tigers failed to advance a team to the state meet for the first time since 2010.

But all was not lost for Northwestern.

Madeline Consuelos and Molly Tarvin qualified for the PIAA Cross Country Championships, along with Robert Leiser and Phillip Castrine from the boys’ team, all in Class 2A competition.

While Consuelos (third, 19:48) and Tarvin (fourth, 19:58) won’t have the honor of going with a team, the duo did well to improve on its performances at last year’s district meet, where Tarvin was fifth and Consuelos seventh.

After competing in unseasonably warm conditions at the Colonial League meet the previous week, Consuelos, who finished second in the league meet, welcomed the much cooler weather for districts at Bethlehem Municipal Golf Course.

“I thought I did a lot better than last week,” the sophomore said. “But I felt really good.

“Last week, I had severe heat exhaustion, so the next couple of days were pretty rough. But I feel a lot better now. I recuperated and I’m a lot stronger now.”

Tarvin echoed Consuelos’ sentiments.

“It went a lot better than I thought it would,” said Tarvin. “It’s the first time I broke 20 (minutes) so I was really excited about that – I’ve never done that on this course. I don’t think I’ve done that in the postseason at all, so that’s exciting.

“And after such a terrible league (meet) race that I had, it’s really exciting to just get a fourth place.”

Leiser placed third (17:07) and will be making his second appearance at the state meet. Castrine will be going for the first time after placing fifth (17:18), a considerable jump from his 27th place finish in 18:39 a year ago as a sophomore.

Still relatively new to the sport after joining the team last season, Leiser improved his time (17:57) and place (seventh) from last year’s district meet, and the junior is hoping to continue that progress in Hershey.

“It’s just another opportunity to try to show off at states,” Leiser said. “Last year, I didn’t do too well at states, probably the pressure, a little bit, but it’s also a really tough course.

“They changed it (the course) up a little bit this year but I want to go back there and see if I can improve a little bit and see what I can do.”

The outing is no surprise to Stitzel, who has watched Leiser grow into one of the best runners in the Colonial League and District 11.

“We knew he would figure it out,” Stitzel said of Leiser. “After the two-mile mark, he would just take off. When other guys are running out of gas, he’s ready to go and still has something left in the tank. And that works for him.”

The Northwestern boys and girls both finished in the top-five in the team standings.

Hannah Herzon (17th, 21:05), Alyssa Zack (32nd, 22:01), Brooke Devers (39th, 22:18), Elizabeth Fornauf (49th, 22:43) and Kristen Brown (63rd, 23:16) helped the Lady Tigers to a fourth-place result as the team finished with 94 points.

The boys’ placed fifth with 133 points, as Matthew Grim (35th, 18:27), Kavan Fitzpatrick (38th, 18:31), Isaiah Jones (52nd, 18:56), Anthony Vennera (55th, 19:01) and Tyler Derr (59th, 19:10) rounded out the Tigers’ contingent.

Ethan Bernstein of Saucon Valley (16:55.43) won the Class AA boys’ race, while Allentown Central Catholic’s Emily Deschler broke through in the 2A girls’ race, winning with a time of 19:34.